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The  Great  Awakening 


^be  Store  ot  tbc  ^vventis^eecono  Century 


BY 

ALBERT  ADAMS  MERRILL 


BOSTON 

George  Book  Publishing  Co. 

1899 


Copyright,  1S99 

By  a.  a.  MERRILL 

AU  rights  reserved 


BOSTON 

C.  J.  PETERS  &  SON 

TyJ>ozra^hers 

iplimpton  ^rtB3 

H.  M.   PLIMPTON  i.  CO.,   PRINTERS  i  BINDERS, 
NORWOOD,  MASS.,  U.S.A. 


XLo  /IBb  /Bbotber, 

WHO  WAS  PERHAPS  THE 

ONLY   ONE   WHO   ENCOURAGED    ME 

To  Undertake  the  Study  of  the  Great  Social  Questions 
Which  Now  Confront  Us, 

THE  SOLUTION  OF  WHICH 

IS   NECESSARY 

TO  THE   HAPPINESS   OF   HUMANITY. 

I 

AFFECTIONATELY 

DEDICATE   THIS    BOOK. 


"Thought  is  the  creator  and  vivifier  of  all  human  affairs. 
Actions,  facts,  and  external  manifestations  of  every  kind,  often 
triumph  for  a  while;  but  it  is  the  progress  of  ideas  which 
ultimately  determines  the  progress  of  the  world.  Unless 
these  are  changed,  every  other  change  is  superficial,  and 
every  improvement  is  precarious." 

«  *  *  Hi  *  *  :•< 

"But  when  it  was  once  clearly  understood  that  gold  and 
silver  are  not  wealth,  but  are  merely  the  representatives  of 
wealth;  when  men  began  to  see  that  wealth  itself  solely 
consists  of  the  value  which  skill  and  labor  can  add  to  the  raw 
material,  and  that  money  is  of  no  possible  use  to  a  nation 
except  to  measure  and  circulate  their  riches;  when  these 
great  truths  were  recognized,  all  the  old  notions  respecting 
the  balance  of  trade,  and  the  supreme  importance  of  the 
precious  metals,  at  once  fell  to  the  ground." 

Henry  Thomas  Buckle. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.     I  Find  Myself    in   the  Twenty-second   Cen- 
tury     9 

II.     Wherein  I  Learn  of  the  Birth  of  the  Money 

Republic 19 

III.  My  Friend  Entertains  Me  with  a  Novel  Finan- 
cial System,  and  Contrasts  It  with  the 
Barbarous  One  in  Force  in  My  Time    .     .     29 

IV.     We  Enjoy  a  Bicycle  Ride 39 

V.     Which  Treats  of  the    Oft-predicted    Revolu- 
tion Which  Finally  Occurred  in  the  Year 

2021 51 

VI.     A  Parable  Is  Always  Interesting,  and  This  One 

Is  Instructive 71 

VII.     Some  New  Inventions 93 

VIII.  In  Which  the  Head  of  the  Money  Bureau, 
Mrs.  Bronson,  Gives  Me  Much  Informa- 
tion     105 

IX.     Which   Tells  of  My  First   Ride  in  a  Flying 

Machine 118 

X.     In  Which  the  Economical  Errors  of  My  Day 

Are  Explained  to  Me 130 

XI.     I  Am  Interested  in  the  Sale  of  Commodities    .   156 
XII.     Nineteenth-century  Theories  in  Practice      .     .   169 
7 


Contents 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

XIII.  Contains  a  Description  of  the  Modern  College 

Game 189 

XIV.  A  Thousand  Mile  Trip  in  a  Flying  Machine     .  199 
XV.     I  Learn  to  Fly 222 

XVI.     The  Mysteries  of  Finance  Unravelled     .     .     .  243 
XVII.    Contains  a  Discussion  on  Repudiation,  Which 

May  Repay  the  Reader  of  It      ....  255 
XVIII.     Contains  Much  Rapid  Transit  and  Some  Eco- 
nomics     268 

XIX.     In  Which  I  Am  Introduced   to  Many   More 

Marvellous  Inventions 284 

XX.     The  Last  Stand  of  the    Eighteenth    Regular 

Infantry  of  the  American  Empire    .     .     .  300 

XXI.     Contains  a  Little  Matter  Touching  Trusts    .     .316 

XXII.     In  Which  the  Relation  Between  the  Increase 

of   Population  and   Industry   is  Treated 

from  the  Malthusian  Standpoint       .     .     .  330 

XXIII.     In  Which  the  Narrative  Closes 340 


The  Great  Awakening 

The 
Story  of  the  Twenty-second  Century 


CHAPTER   I. 

I    FIND    MYSELF    IN    THE    TWENTY-SECOND 
CENTURY. 

In  the  following  pages  I  have  endeavored 
to  relate  as  accurately  as  possible  my  experi- 
ences with  Professor  Harding,  who  was  bom 
in  Boston  in  the  year  2153,  was  highly  edu- 
cated and  thoroughly  grounded  in  the  econom- 
ics and  history  of  the  time. 

You  must  know  that  I  had  lived  in  the 
nineteenth  century  —  the  year  of  my  death 
being  1901  —  but  that,  owing  to  some  strange 
mistake,  the  reincarnation  of  my  soul  had 
been  neglected,  and  when  I  appeared  again 
on  earth,  my  body  was  already  mature  and 
full-growTi.  Thus  a  soul,  an  intelligence  used 
to  nineteenth  century  conditions,  found  itself 
confronted  with  the  civilization  of  the  twenty- 


lO  The  Great  Awakening 

second  century.  In  ordinary  reincarnations 
the  soul  enters  the  body  of  a  babe,  and  early 
training  destroys  most  of  its  knowledge  of  the 
past  while  preparing  it  for  the  new  life  ;  but 
while  I  knew  nothing  of  my  surroundings  — 
the  great  space  of  time  following  my  death 
being  a  perfect  blank  —  my  knowledge  was 
wholly  confined  to  the  conditions  of  my  former 
existence.  Thus  I  would  have  been  unable 
to  fit  myself  to  my  new  life,  had  it  not  been 
for  my  friend  the  professor,  who  kindly  took 
me  in  hand,  educated  me,  and  put  me  on  my 
feet,  as  it  were,  so  that  now,  as  teacher  of 
mediaeval  history,  I  am  able  to  be  a  useful 
member  of  society. 

On  the  morning  of  June  3,  2199,  I  was 
awakened  by  the  playing  of  a  phonograph,  and 
on  opening  my  eyes,  found  myself  in  a  large 
and  beautifully  appointed  chamber.  As  you 
may  imagine,  my  astonishment  was  great,  for 
as  I  recalled  my  thoughts  I  remembered  dis- 
tinctly going  to  sleep  in  a  small,  dark  room 
very  different  from  this,  and  I  remembered 
the  pain  I  had  suffered  the  day  before.  Yes, 
I  was  sick,  very  sick.  I  remembered  the  doc- 
tor, the  nurse,  the  anxious  faces  of  my  par- 
ents. But  now  all  was  different.  What  was 
the  meaning  of  this  change .''     Where  was  I  ? 


The  End  of  a  Long  Sleep  1 1 

Had  1  been  carried  to  some  other  house,  to 
some  hospital  ?  Was  I  still  sick  ?  I  did  not 
suffer  ;  on  the  contrary  I  felt  in  the  best  of 
health  ;  and  then,  as  the  dismal  thoughts  of 
the  weeks  of  suffering  I  had  undergone  came 
back  to  me,  I  concluded  I  must  be  dreaming. 
Well,  thought  I,  if  by  dreaming  I  can  still  the 
pain  which  tortured  me,  let  me  but  dream 
forever ! 

I  lay  quietly  on  my  back,  and  began  to  look 
around  the  room.  At  my  left  was  a  large 
window  looking  out  upon  a  park  filled  with 
beautiful  large  maples,  their  branches  moving 
softly  with  the  gentle  breeze  ;  across  the  room 
a  large  fireplace  met  my  gaze,  with  a  mantel 
surmounting,  on  which  there  was  a  clock  and 
some  vases,  and  I  distinctly  heard  the  clock 
ticking.  A  most  marvellous  dream,  thought 
I.  As  my  eyes  wandered  about,  now  stopping 
to  admire  some  pictures,  now  examining  curi- 
ously some  article  of  furniture  wholly  new  to 
me,  a  little  door  above  the  dial  of  the  clock 
opened,  a  miniature  head  was  pushed  out,  and 
a  soft,  delightful  voice  said  pleasantly,  "  It  is 
now  ten  o'clock." 

"  Merciful  heavens  !  "  thought  I,  "what  is 
the  matter  with  me  }  Am  I  crazy  ?  "  And  I 
jumped  up  in  bed,  and  began  to  pinch  myself, 


12  The  Great  Awakening 

but  all  to  no  purpose.  The  little  clock  kept 
on  ticking,  the  pictures  never  stirred,  and  the 
fireplace  was  still  at  the  foot  of  the  bed,  while 
outside  the  trees  were  waving  their  branches 
to  and  fro.  I  was  bewildered,  and  while  gaz- 
ing out  of  the  window,  trying  to  collect  my 
thoughts,  a  man  in  some  sort  of  a  machine 
flew  by  through  the  air. 

That  was  enough.  With  one  jump  I  was 
at  the  window,  and  there  what  a  sight  met 
my  eyes  !  Before  me  was  a  beautiful  park 
filled  with  trees  and  lovely  flower  beds,  to  the 
left  stretched  a  boulevard  lined  on  either  side 
with  large,  handsome  residences,  its  centre 
marked  with  broad,  smooth  walks  edged  with 
flowers,  and  on  this  boulevard  many  carriages 
were  passing,  but  there  were  no  horses  ;  and 
above,  in  the  air,  men  and  women  could  be 
seen  riding  on  odd,  kite-like  machines.  My 
astonishment  was  complete.  I  left  the  win- 
dow, and  for  several  minutes  I  paced  up  and 
down  wholly  absorbed  in  the  question  which 
now  completely  occupied  my  mind.  What 
had  happened,  and  where  was  I  ? 

How  long  a  time  I  passed  in  this  condition 
I  do  not  know,  but  as  I  reached  one  end  of 
the  room,  my  attention  was  called  to  a  calen- 
dar which  was  on  a  desk.     I  took  it  up  and 


The  End  of  a  Long  Sleep  13 

examined  it.  I  read,  "June  3,  215  New  Era, 
A.D.  2199"  What  could  it  mean  —  215 
New  Era,  a.d.  2199?  Had  I  died  and  been 
bom  again  ?  Was  it  really  the  year  2 1 99  ? 
I  had  not  much  time  to  soliloquize,  for  the 
door  opened  suddenly,  and  two  gentlemen 
entered.  These  gentlemen  were  Professor 
Harding  and  Dr.  Coburn. 

They  greeted  me  pleasantly,  asking  after 
my  health,  and  sat  down  to  converse.  Not 
knowing  at  that  time  the  true  state  of  affairs, 
their  conversation  was  puzzling  to  me,  and  I 
will  not  now  repeat  it  as  it  probably  would 
be  uninteresting  to  you,  and  also  as  a  full 
statement  of  my  case  is  giv^en  in  the  Howard 
Medical  Journal,  vol.  xxviii,  p.  173;  but  it 
will  suffice  to  say  that  the  experiment  of  Dr. 
Coburn  on  my  body  previous  to  my  reincarna- 
tion was  very  successful.  All  those  who  are 
acquainted  with  the  case  will  remember  that 
the  body  which  I  at  present  occupy  formerly 
belonged  to  a  certain  Richard  Pangloss,  who 
went  insane.  The  operation  which  was  per- 
formed on  his  brain  was  the  means  of  the 
transmigration  of  his  soul  and  the  reincar- 
nation of  my  own.  The  operating  surgeon. 
Dr.  Coburn,  did  not  at  the  time  realize  what 
had  happened,  thinking  simply  that  Pangloss 


14  The  Great  Awakening 

had  become  sane  again  ;  and  indeed,  I  have 
had  great  difficulty  in  convincing  people  of 
the  truth.  It  is  a  most  astonishing  thing,  I 
will  admit,  yet  my  knowledge  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  is  so  full  and  complete  that 
this  is  in  itself  proof  of  my  statement,  and  it 
is  the  only  proof  I  can  give. 

For  some  days  after  my  first  meeting  with 
the  doctor  I  was  kept  in  the  chamber  in 
which  I  had  been  awakened,  and  served  by 
the  doctor  and  the  professor  ;  and  during  this 
time  explanations  were  made  by  both  sides, 
until  my  friends  were  prone  to  believe  my 
statement,  that  is,  that  I  was  born  in  1874 
and  died  in  190 1.  It  was,  however,  deemed 
advisable  that  this  fact  should  not  be  gen- 
erally known,  and  the  professor,  who  lived 
alone,  undertook  to  care  for  me  until  such 
time  as  I  could  obtain  some  self-supporting 
work.  It  was  given  out  that  Pangloss  had 
survived  the  operation,  but  that  his  mind  was 
a  total  blank,  and  that  Professor  Harding  had 
undertaken  to  educate  him  ;  and  it  was  in  this 
manner  that  I  became  known  to  the  public. 

My  first  few  weeks  at  the  professor's  home 
in  Boston  were  mainly  spent  indoors,  while 
he  enlightened  me  as  to  the  present  condition 
of  affairs,  present  manners  and  customs  ;  he 


The  End  of  a  Long  Sleep  15 

also  instructed  me  in  the  modern  English  lan- 
guage, which  I  found  differed  greatly  from 
the  old  EngHsh  I  spoke,  being  simplified 
and  changed  in  many  of  its  idioms  and  con- 
jugations ;  and  I  learned  from  him  of  the 
growth  of  the  movement  towards  a  universal 
language,  which  I  believe  is  used  wholly  now, 
and  which  growth  was  started  by  a  body  of 
Americans  in  my  own  time.  Being  an  Amer- 
ican, I  was  proud  of  this  fact. 

The  professor's  house  was  not  large,  but  was 
very  well  built  and  handsomely  furnished.  It 
did  not  differ  greatly  from  many  of  the  houses 
of  the  well-to-do  people  of  my  time,  the  only 
difference  noticeable  being  the  very  extensive 
use  of  electricity.  The  house  was  lighted 
from  top  to  bottom  by  large  globes  set  in  the 
wall  and  ceiling  and  handsomely  decorated, 
and,  upon  turning  a  button,  these  globes  gave 
off  a  brilliant  and  steady  white  light.  Another 
feature  not  in  existence  in  my  time  was  the 
telephone  system  between  the  rooms,  which 
astonished  me  ;  for  in  the  nineteenth  century 
one  had  to  hold  the  receiver  to  the  ear  and 
talk  close  to  the  transmitter,  while  with  the 
present  system  the  conversation  is  so  loud 
and  distinct  that  neither  receiver  nor  trans- 
mitter is  required,  the  sound  being  audible  in 


1 6  The  Great  Awakening 

any  part  of  the  room.  This  surely  is  a  great 
advance.  The  use  of  electricity  in  the  kitchen 
also  surprised  me.  Cooking,  washing,  drying, 
and  ironing  were  all  accomplished  by  this 
agent,  and  the  saving  in  time  and  temper, 
the  lack  of  dust  and  noise,  were  very  evident. 
The  library,  in  which  the  professor  and  I 
had  most  of  our  discussions  —  and  we  had 
many  long  and  warm  debates,  which  was  to 
be  expected  between  two  men,  one  of  the 
nineteenth  and  the  other  of  the  twenty-second 
century  —  was  a  roomy  and  well-lighted  apart- 
ment. This  room  particularly  pleased  me. 
There  was  on  one  side  a  fireplace  of  grand 
proportions,  with  a  beautiful  mantel  above,  on 
which  were  some  exquisite  pieces  done  in 
marble.  The  walls  were  a  dark  red,  and  the 
woodwork  was  finished  in  white.  Bookshelves 
occupied  the  sides  of  the  room,  and  here  the 
professor  had  a  part  of  his  library.  There 
were  here  about  nine  thousand  volumes.  In 
the  centre  stood  a  table  with  an  electric  read- 
ing lamp  on  it  —  a  lamp  which  gave  almost  no 
heat,  and  threw  all  its  light  downwards,  away 
from  the  reader's  eyes  ;  while  below,  on  a  shelf, 
stood  a  neat  little  ash-tray,  cigar  and  pipe 
holder,  with  all  the  other  paraphernalia  which 
delight  and  comfort  the  smoker. 


The  End  of  a  Long  Sleep  1 7 

^  The  dining  room,  which  opened  from  the 
library,  was  also  large  and  airy,  and  the  walls 
of  this  room  were  covered  with  embossed 
leather  to  within  three  feet  of  the  floor,  the 
rest  of  the  space  being  filled  with  fine  oak 
paneling;  the  ceiling  was  crossed  by  heavy 
oak  beams  beautifully  carved,  which  cut  it 
into  square  spaces,  in  each  of  which  there  was 
a  glass  tube  molded  in  the  shape  of  a  rosette, 
through  which  a  current  of  electricity  played, 
turning  night  into  day.  The  sideboard  was 
massive,  with  but  little  embellishment,  and  in 
this  it  matched  the  general  tone  of  the  room, 
which  reminded  me  rather  of  ancient  than 
modern  architecture;  and  behind  the  glass 
doors  there  rested  many  a  piece  of  delicate, 
dainty  china.  The  professor,  I  saw  at  once, 
was  a  man  of  taste. 

Now  it  is  at  the  professor's  solicitation  that 
I  undertake  to  tell  my  experiences  with  him. 
He  wishes  his  fellow-citizens  of  the  twenty- 
second  century  to  know  how  their  system  of 
government  appears  to  one  fresh  from  the 
nineteenth  century.  It  is  for  you,  therefore, 
that  I  write  these  words.  My  trip  through 
your  country,  the  many  interesting  sights  I 
saw,  the  pleasurable  experiences  I  had,  and 
the  new  sensations  I  received  upon  travelling 


1 8  The  Great  Awakening 

through  the  air  —  a  thing  I  had  long  dreamed 
of  doing  —  may  be  interesting  to  you  as  being 
written  by  one  to  whom  they  are  extremely 
novel ;  and  at  the  risk  of  writing  much  which 
I  know  will  appear  to  my  readers  as  a  matter 
of  course,  I  have  deemed  it  best  (and  Profes- 
sor Harding  supports  me  in  this  decision)  to 
tell  everything  just  as  it  happened  in  its  reg- 
ular order. 

One  thing  only  I  beg  of  you,  gentle  reader, 
and  that  is,  that  you  will  remember  that  this 
little  book  is  written  in  the  hope  that  from  it 
we  may  be  able  to  learn  something,  even  if 
it  is  but  little,  which  will  help  increase  our 
scanty  stock  of  knowledge.  It  may  be  that 
the  people  of  the  twenty-second  century  have 
nothing  to  learn  from  such  an  uncivilized 
fellow  as  I  am,  yet  I  cannot  but  think  that 
the  contrast  between  the  nineteenth  and  the 
twenty-second  century  methods  of  thought  is 
instructive  to  all,  and  this  is  my  excuse  for 
writing  ;  therefore,  on  with  my  story  —  the 
story  of  the  twenty-second  century. 


CHAPTER  II. 

WHEREIN    I    LEARN     OF     THE     BIRTH     OF     THE 
MONEY    REPUBLIC, 

Seated  one  evening  in  the  library  after 
dinner,  I  broached  the  subject  of  change  of 
opinion  regarding  economical  questions,  in 
order  to  draw  out  the  professor  and  gain  for 
myself  a  more  thorough  knowledge  of  pres- 
ent views. 

"  Your  system  seems  so  well  to  have  solved 
the  problem  which  confronted  humanity,"  I 
said,  "  that  I  cannot  understand  it.  Now,  in 
my  time  we  considered  the  social  system  so 
complex  that  we  generally  laughed  at  the  man 
who  said  he  could  remedy  it  by  changing 
one  factor.  I  had  often  heard  it  stated  that 
although  many  men  had  thought  deeply  on 
the  subject  of  economics,  they  could  not 
come  to  any  conclusion  which  fitted  and  ex- 
plained all  the  facts." 

"  Yes  }  "  said  the  professor.  "  Well,  you 
know  that  all  students  of  economics  in  your 


20  The  Great  Awakening 

time  were  not  deep  thinkers.  In  my  hbrary 
I  have  the  economic  books  of  your  century, 
and  they  lead  me  to  beheve  that  the  depth  to 
which  your  professors  went  in  this  subject 
was  dependent  on  the  poHtics  of  the  capital 
which  furnished  their  salaries." 

"Well,  well,  professor,"  said  I,  laughing, 
"  I  do  not  know  but  you  are  right." 

"  Towards  the  last  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury the  changes  in  the  coinage  of  the  vari- 
ous nations  of  the  world  caused  a  great  deal 
of  attention  to  be  devoted  to  this  subject, 
and  it  was  this  fact  which  led  to  a  radical 
change  in  society.  You  remember  probably 
that  the  question  was  between  bimetallism  and 
monometallism.  There  were  in  the  United 
States  some  men  who,  in  studying  up  this 
question,  were  convinced  that  society  existed 
upon  an  unjust  basis,  and  they  believed  that 
that  unjust  basis  was  the  current  theory  of 
finance.  You  will,  of  course,  remember  that 
your  circulating  medium  consisted  primarily 
of  gold  and  a  certain  amount  of  credit  money 
based  on  this  gold  and  redeemed  with  this 
gold.  Now  it  is  evident,  said  these  thinkers, 
that  this  is  entirely  wrong  and  unjust  ;  for  no 
matter  how  well  a  certain  amount  of  circu- 
lating medium  may  handle  trade  at  one  time. 


The  Money  Republic  21 

if  trade  increases,  the  amount  of  medium 
must  increase,  or  else  it  cannot  handle  the 
increased  trade." 

"  Hold  on,  do  not  go  so  fast.  These  things 
are  so  new  to  me  that  it  takes  time  for  me  to 
fully  comprehend  them." 

"Well,"  said  the  professor,  "what  shall  I 
explain  .-'  You  surely  understand  that  money 
is  simply  a  medium  of  exchange." 

"  Why,  no  ;  it  has  a  double  function.  It  is 
also  a  measure  of  values." 

"There  you  are  in  error,"  said  the  pro- 
fessor. "  No  commodity  or  substance  can 
justly  be  a  measure  or  standard  of  values." 

"Why,  I  do  not  understand,"  said  I.  "How 
can  you  measure  values  except  by  comparing 
the  purchasing  power  of  one  substance  with 
that  of  another  which  is  accepted  as  a  true 
and  never  changing  standard.?  And  when  we 
read  in  the  market  reports  of  a  fall  in  price  in 
any  substance,  how  do  we  know  what  it  means 
unless  we  accept  some  standard  commodity 
like  gold  ?  " 

"  Let  me  illustrate  the  foolishness  of  your 
last  statement  by  a  simple  example.  Suppose 
there  is  in  a  room  a  thermometer,  and  that 
you,  a  slave,  are  required  to  keep  the  tempera- 
ture up  to   100'',  we  will  say,  by  working  at  a 


22  The  Great  Awakening 

furnace.  Every  now  and  then  you  run  to  the 
thermometer  to  watch  the  temperature,  which 
keeps  mysteriously  falHng.  You  cannot  un- 
derstand it.  You  work  harder  and  harder, 
but  the  temperature  keeps  going  down,  and 
you  are  at  a  loss  to  comprehend  it,  until  it 
dawns  upon  you  that  your  master,  by  his 
manipulations  outside  of  the  room,  is  rais- 
ing the  scale  by  which  the  temperature  is 
measured,  for  the  satisfaction  of  making  you 
work.  This  is  especially  applicable  to  your 
times,  if  we  remember  that  the  man  who 
manipulates  the  scale  is  the  capitalist,  that  is, 
the  man  who  deals  in  money.  His  object  in 
manipulating  the  scale  is  this  :  in  general  he 
is  a  creditor,  and  it  is  important  to  him  that 
the  debtor  be  kept  in  debt  as  long  as  possible, 
for  the  longer  the  debt  lasts,  the  more  inter- 
est the  creditor  gets.  So  he  will  raise  the 
scale  gradually,  and  when  the  temperature 
climbs  up  to  it,  up  goes  the  scale  again  ;  so 
that  the  poor  debtor,  although  he  has  paid  the 
debt  three  and  four  times  over  actually,  yet, 
measured  by  the  scale,  the  debt  is  never  paid. 
So  you  can  see  that,  unless  the  creditor  is  will- 
ing, the  debtor  can  never  pay  the  debt.  If 
the  latter  should  suggest  that  perhaps  the 
creditor  has  raised  the  scale,  there  would  be 


The  Money  Republic  23 

an  awful  cry.  Repudiation  it  would  be  called. 
This  was  the  condition  of  affairs  in  your  time. 
The  moneyed  power  was  on  the  throne.  Yet 
there  were  some  men  who  saw  the  fallacy  of 
this  thing." 

"  Why,  professor,  you  throw  a  new  light  on 
the  subject.  It  never  struck  me  before  that 
gold,  a  standard,  might  appreciate,  and  yet  it 
evidently  can,  for  value  being  a  ratio  which 
one  can  express  by  a  fraction,  it  may  be 
changed  by  changing  either  the  numerator  or 
the  denominator.  Well,  in  the  future  I  shall 
be  more  careful  in  thinking  of  these  things, 
but  as  you  express  it,  it  seems  perfectly 
simple  and  easy  to  understand  by  any  man 
who  uses  his  brains." 

"It  is,"  said  the  professor,  "but  in  politics 
a  voter  of  your  century  never  used  his  own 
brains.  He  always  borrowed  those  of  the 
editor  of  his  pet  newspaper.  Now  you  see 
that  the  fallacy  of  this  scheme  of  finance  lies 
in  limiting  the  issue  of  redemption  money  to 
the  amount  of  one  commodity.  Of  course  it 
is  immaterial  which  commodity  is  used,  as  the 
fallacy  is  in  using  only  one." 

"But,"  said  I,  "how  else  can  you  do  it? 
You  cannot  call  a  bushel  of  wheat  a  dollar, 
or  a  dozen  eggs  fifty  cents  ;  a  man  cannot 
carry  these  things  in  his  pocket." 


24  The  Great  Awakening 

"  No,"  said  the  professor,  "  nor  does  the 
man  carry  the  gold  in  his  pocket.  In  your 
century  and  in  ours  he  carries  paper  in  his 
pocket ;  only,  in  your  times  the  amount  that 
could  be  issued  was  dependent  upon  the 
amount  of  gold  in  existence,  while  in  our  times 
it  is  dependent  on  the  amount  of  wealth  in 
existence.  In  one  case  the  supply  is  limited, 
therefore  its  value  as  a  commodity  is  con- 
stantly appreciating,  as  is  shown  by  a  constant 
fall  in  prices ;  while  in  the  other  case  the 
supply  is  unlimited,  as  it  depends  upon  the 
amount  of  wealth,  and  therefore  it  has  no 
value  as  a  commodity,  so  that  it  makes  the 
best  possible  medium  of  exchange." 

"  But,  professor,  in  speaking  of  falling 
prices,  you  must  admit  that  it  shows  progress 
—  shows  that  we  can  now  make  useful  com- 
modities much  cheaper  than  we  could  one 
hundred  years  before." 

"  Right  here,  in  order  not  to  get  confused, 
we  must  go  slowly,"  said  the  professor.  "  If 
you  only  mean  that  we  can  make  useful 
things  with  less  expenditure  of  labor,  your 
statement  is  true  ;  but  if  you  mean  that  be- 
cause of  this  fact  their  worth  has  decreased, 
then  you  are  wrong.  The  worth  of  a  hat  is 
the  same,  whether  it  costs  $io  or  $2.     You 


The  Money  Republic  25 

confound  the  worth  of  a  thing,  which  depends 
on  its  inherent  characteristics,  with  the  mar- 
ket value,  which  depends  on  the  effective 
demand  and  supply.  As  the  effective  de- 
mand is  wholly  dependent  on  the  amount  of 
money  in  circulation,  it  is  evident  that  the 
capitalists  in  your  day  controlled  market  val- 
ues. Now  some  of  your  greatest  statesmen 
declared  over  and  over  again  that  your  hard 
times  were  entirely  due  to  overproduction, 
which  was  an  absurdity,  taking  into  consid- 
eration that  at  the  same  time  people  were 
starving.  It  is  only  explained  when  you  un- 
derstand that  it  was  the  effective  demand  that 
was  stopped  by  the  capitalists  for  their  own 
benefit.  The  amazing  thing  to  me  in  all  this 
is  that  the  majority  believed  the  way  the  cap- 
italists did  and  actually  voted  for  the  so-called 
honest  or  hard  money,  which  meant  appre- 
ciated money  ;  and  as  we  look  back  at  the 
century  we  are  also  amazed  to  see  that  people 
thought  it  a  sign  of  progress  to  see  prices 
fall ;  and  we  find  but  few  men  going  deeply 
into  the  subject,  or  else  they  would  have  seen 
what  one  man  saw  very  clearly,  and  that  is, 
that  with  progress  comes  poverty.  This  is 
such  an  evident  fact  in  all  growth  of  the  past 
that  it  is  astonishing  that  most  men  could 
overlook  it.     But  to  return. 


26  The  Great  Awakening 

"  There  were,  I  say,  a  few  men  who  under- 
stood the  true  conditions  and  resolved  to 
change  them.  They  gathered  a  large  number 
around  their  standard  and  met  in  Chicago  in 
June  of  the  year  1904.  There  were  present 
about  five  hundred  men  of  all  classes,  and  they 
undertook  to  discuss  the  various  methods  of 
testing  their  own  theories.  The  meeting 
lasted  for  three  weeks,  and  nothing  was  set- 
tled. The  various  platforms  had  not  met  with 
enough  approval  to  warrant  deciding  upon  any 
one,  and  until  the  last  week  no  understanding 
had  been  reached.  During  the  last  of  the 
meetings  some  one  suggested  that  they  start  a 
gov^ernment  of  their  own,  which  plan  was  dis- 
cussed by  those  present  ;  and  although  it  did 
not  receive  a  unanimous  vote,  still  there  were 
a  great  number  who  were  in  favor  of  it.  At 
the  end  of  the  conference,  while  most  of  the 
members  went  home  feeling  that  the  time  had 
not  come  when  concerted  action  could  produce 
good  results,  there  was  a  little  band  of  two 
hundred  or  more  resolved  on  emigrating  to 
some  foreign  land  and  starting  a  government 
on  their  own  plans.  During  the  following 
year  their  plans  matured,  their  number  in- 
creased to  six  or  seven  hundred,  and  they 
departed  from  America  for  Africa  on  May  7, 


The  Money  Republic  27 

1905,  and  arrived  in  sixteen  days  at  their 
destination,  which  was  a  strip  of  land  on 
the  western  coast.  The  main  points  of 
their  constitution,  aside  from  their  theory 
of  finance,  were  that  they  had  only  two 
branches  of  government,  executive  and  legis- 
lative. These  men  claimed  that  a  judiciary 
was  not  needed  where  scientific  and  just  laws 
existed,  holding  that  disputes  never  could  be 
hot  enough  not  to  be  settled  out  of  court,  as 
it  were,  unless  it  were  a  matter  of  life  or 
death,  starvation  or  plenty  ;  and  as  they  con- 
sidered that  these  conditions  could  only  exist 
where  there  was  a  poor  scheme  of  finance, 
they  judged,  and  rightly,  there  was  no  need 
of  this  department. 

"  It  was  written  in  their  laws  that  all  dis- 
putes should  be  considered  settled  when 
judged  by  three  men,  one  to  be  chosen  by 
each  of  the  contestants,  these  two  to  choose 
a  third.  Their  legislative  branch  was  much 
like  your  house  of  representatives  and  they 
had  no  senate.  They  had  a  very  strong 
power  of  taxation,  which  they  enforced ;  and 
yet  no  tax,  in  the  sense  you  would  understand 
it,  was  collected.  You  must  remember  that 
the  flying  machine,  large  enough  to  carry  five 
or  six   hundred   pounds,  was  in    existence  at 


28  The  Great  Awakening 

this  time,  and  that  its  use  was  very  general. 
These  machines  were  cheap,  being  made  of 
wood,  steel  tubing,  and  cloth,  and  were  run 
by  small  gas  motors.  In  our  museum  I  will 
show  you  a  picture  of  what  we  consider  the 
primitive  machine.  It  consisted  of  super- 
posed aeroplanes  driven  forward  by  propellers, 
or  in  some  cases  by  small  flapping  wings. 
These  machines,  being  in  existence  at  the 
time  of  the  founding  of  the  colony,  were  a 
strong  factor  in  its  growth.  Many  times  they 
were  used  for  the  defence  of  the  nation. 

"  Now  we  see  that  the  radical  difference 
between  this  and  other  nations  was  in  its 
financial  system.  As  nations  grew  older,  pov- 
erty which  had  not  existed  before,  showed  its 
head,  and  many  wondered  if  it  would  be  the 
same  with  this  nation." 

Our  conversation  at  this  point  was  inter- 
rupted by  a  call  from  Dr.  Coburn,  and  it  so 
happened  that  it  was  some  days  before  the 
professor  found  time  to  take  up  the  story 
again.  Meanwhile  I  busied  myself  sightsee- 
ing on  my  bicycle,  and  the  district,  with  its 
fine  residences  and  boulevards,  pleased  me 
greatly. 


CHAPTER   III. 

MY  FRIEND  ENTERTAINS  ME  WITH  A  NOVEL 
FINANCIAL  SYSTEM,  AND  CONTRASTS  IT 
WITH  THE  BARBAROUS  ONE  IN  FORCE  IN 
MY    TIME. 

"  Well,  my  friend,  have  you  been  enjoying 
yourself  since  I  saw  you  last  .-*  "  the  professor 
asked  me  one  day  after  luncheon,  as  we  again 
adjourned  to  the  library  for  a  quiet  chat. 

"You  may  be  sure  of  it,"  said  I,  "your 
district  here  is  so  well  planned,  your  streets 
are  so  beautiful  ;  but  do  you  know,  I  miss  the 
horse." 

"  Yes,  that  is  to  be  expected.     Of  course 

in  your  day  he  was  a  necessary  animal,  and 

contributed  not  a  little  to  your  comfort  and 

convenience  ;   but  at  the  same  time  he  also 

did  his  share  towards  the  progress  of  disease. 

He    is   practically  extinct    now,   only  a    few 

being  found  in  the  zoological  gardens,  for  of 

course  there  was  no  use  for  him  when  we  had 

invented  our  little  compact  engines  and  mo- 
29 


30  The  Great  Awakening 

tors,  so  there  were  none  bred,  and  the  race 
died  out  very  quickly." 

"  I  must  say,  I  did  not  enjoy  the  production 
last  night  at  the  Esplanade  Theatre.  You 
know,  professor,  I  am  slightly  old-fashioned, 
belonging  to  the  last  generation  but  twelve, 
and  I  could  not  understand  the  sentiment." 

"  It  is  not  to  be  expected.  In  your  day 
there  must  always  be  a  villain  in  the  play, 
lovers  who  are  parted,  some  heroine  who  is 
despoiled  of  her  wealth.  Now,  you  know,  in 
our  day  those  people  don't  exist,  simply  be- 
cause the  system  which  bred  them  does  not 
exist.  Why,  it  is  some  ten  or  fifteen  years 
now  since  I  have  seen  any  revival  of  such 
plays.  As  you  cannot  understand  our  drama, 
so  we  cannot  understand  yours.  You  know 
that  the  ancient  Greek  drama  was  rarely 
played  to  your  audiences,  for  in  your  time  it 
was  action  that  was  wanted  ;  the  Greek  plays 
are  more  displays  of  oratory,  as  ours  are  now." 

"  It  was,  however,  admirably  well  staged  and 
ably  managed.  But  let  us  return  to  our  inter- 
esting conversation  of  last  week.  Do  you 
remember  where  we  were  .-•  You  were  telling 
me  of  the  rise  of  the  new  republic." 

"  Oh,  yes,"  said  the  professor  ;  "  I  never 
forget  that  history.     The  growth  of  that  re- 


Contrasts  31 

public  did  more  for  humanity  than  any  other 
movement  has  done  since  the  change  from 
Pagan  to  Christian  rehgion.  That  is  a  period 
in  the  history  of  the  world  that  our  children 
have  to  understand  before  all  others. 

"  Let  me  see,  I  believe  our  little  band  of 
colonists  had  just  got  to  Africa  —  was  not 
that  where  we  were  ?  Yes,  I  thought  so. 
Their  first  thought  was  to  provide  food  and 
shelter,  and  as  they  were  all  enthusiasts  there 
were  no  shirks.  They  worked  and  exchanged 
by  barter  for  the  first  year  or  two  until 
they  had  accumulated  some  wealth,  and  then 
they  had  a  meeting  to  start  their  scheme  of 
finance.  The  basis  of  their  scheme  lay  in  the 
fact  that  the  total  amount  of  money  must 
increase  as  the  wealth  does,  and  not  be  limited 
to  the  increase  of  any  one  commodity,  so  that 
the  amount  of  money  issued  at  first  was  of 
little  importance  so  long  as  the  future  issue 
was  regulated  by  the  increase  of  wealth.  Their 
first  issue  was  therefore  made  ^100  per  capita. 
We  now  come  to  an  important  step.  The 
question  which  they  next  settled  was  to  whom 
and  in  what  proportion  it  should  be  issued. 

"  This  was  a  difficult  point  and  caused  much 
discussion,  for  the  question  whether  or  no  ten 
hours  labor  in  one  trade  deserved  more  than 


32  The  Great  Awakening 

the  same  time  spent  in  another,  arose  immedi- 
ately. They  argued  it  for  some  time  in  their 
little  town  meetings,  but  finally  decided  to 
divide  equally  all  money  issued  by  the  govern- 
ment, and  passed  a  law  to  that  effect.  The 
principal  arguments  in  favor  were:  first,  since 
they  had  left  America  to  escape  that  state  of 
affairs  which  fostered  the  growth  of  privileges 
based  upon  the  private  ownership  of  land  and 
capital,  to  divide  unequally  would  tend  imme- 
diately to  produce  those  differences  of  oppor- 
tunity from  which  they  had  just  escaped  ;  and 
second,  that  as  the  distribution  of  existing 
wealth  was  the  main  factor  which  determined 
the  future  production  of  wealth,  and  as  the 
future  production  of  wealth  would  never  be  so 
great  as  under  absolutely  equal  division  of 
existing  wealth,  to  divide  unequally  would  tend 
to  prevent  the  production  of  wealth.  This 
last  argument  is  an  economic  law  not  known 
in  your  time,  some  of  your  statesmen  even 
going  so  far  as  to  say  that  distribution  had 
nothing  to  do  with  production.  Now,  of 
course  it  is  practically  impossible  to  divide 
wealth  equally,  so  they  did  the  next  best 
thing  —  divided  money  equally. 

"  They  had   now  taken   their  first  step  to 
test  the  system.     Their  pieces  of  paper  money 


Contrasts  33 

had  written  on  their  face  the  words,  'The 
Government  of  the  Money  Repubhc  (that  was 
its  name)  guarantees  this  bill  to  be  exchange 
able  for  any  or  all  commodities  to  the  amount 
of  one  dollar,'  and  on  the  back,  'This  bill  is 
legal  tender  for  all  debts  public  or  private  of 
whatever  nature.'  The  first  issue  was  all  in 
ones ;  but  as  wealth  increased,  there  were  twos, 
fives,  tens,  twenties,  and  so  on,  issued,  besides 
smaller  subsidiary  issues.  Upon  the  day  of 
their  first  issue  the  time  of  the  second  issue 
was  discussed,  and  it  was  voted  to  make  it  a 
year  later.  The  meeting  then  broke  up,  each 
man  holding  his  pieces  of  paper  which,  while 
of  no  value  in  themselves,  were  the  capitaliza- 
tion of  his  labor.  He  knew  that  the  govern- 
ment was  strong  enough  to  enforce  its  stamp, 
or,  in  other  words,  that  a  majority  of  the 
people  believed  in  the  system  ;  and  he  knew 
that  the  currency  was  on  a  firm  basis  since, 
being  issued  on  all  forms  of  wealth,  it  was  not 
dependent  upon  the  quantity  of  any  one  form. 
Since  all  forms  of  labor  could  be  capitalized, 
he  knew  that  the  way  to  get  rich  —  that  is, 
to  get  some  of  the  medium  of  exchange  — 
was  to  produce  wealth. 

"  In  your  day  the  way  to  get  rich  was  not 
to  produce  wealth,  but  to  take  what  there  was 


34  The  Great  Awakening 

in  some  one's  else  pocket  and  put  it  in  your 
own.  This  idea  was  so  prevalent  that  the 
number  of  actual  producers  compared  to  the 
whole  number  of  consumers  was  very  small, 
and  therefore  perforce  those  producers  worked 
the  hardest  and  the  longest.  In  your  time  a 
banker  would  come  into  his  office  from  the 
stock  exchange  and,  rubbing  his  hands,  would 
say,  '  That  was  a  fine  stroke  of  work  — 
;^  10,000  in  fifteen  minutes.'  All  this  man 
had  done  was  to  transfer  some  wealth  from  a 
number  of  other  people's  pockets  to  his  own 
pocket.  This  state  of  things  bred  a  race  of 
men  who  were  cutthroats.  I  do  not  mean 
this  literally,  of  course,  but  I  mean  that  a  vast 
number  of  your  brainy  men,  young  and  old, 
were  engaged  in  the  pleasant  occupation  of 
forcing  each  other  to  the  wall.  While  this 
was  going  on,  the  laborer,  the  real  producer 
of  all  this  wealth,  for  the  control  of  which  all 
your  men  of  brains  were  striving,  got  only  a 
bare  living.  His  condition  was  almost  as  low 
as  was  possible  for  existence.  He  received 
no  attention  except  such  as  he  could  force 
by  trade  unions.  I  will  admit,  however,  that 
periodically  at  elections  he  was  much  petted 
—  for  his  vote. 

"  This  condition  of  affairs  was  so  universal 


Contrasts  35 

throughout  the  world  that,  in  speaking  of  it 
now,  we  call  it  the  Age  of  Degeneration,  be- 
cause men  had  degenerated  from  producing 
to  controlling  wealth.  This  could  not  have 
happened  if  your  nation  had  had  a  good  finan- 
cial system.  Your  circulating  medium  being 
one  commodity,  its  quantity  was  easily  con- 
trolled ;  and  since  it  was  that  medium  which 
purchased  all  commodities,  the  aim  in  your 
day  was  to  control  that  medium.  When  we 
look  back,  we  see  that  there  was  only  one 
man  who  appreciated  fully  the  fact  that  with 
progress  came  poverty.  His  medicine  for 
the  disease  was  a  single  tax  on  land  values. 
He  accepted  concentration  as  a  condition  of 
progress,  and  saw  clearly  that,  with  that  con- 
dition, private  property  in  land  wrought  ter- 
rible havoc.  Let  us  now  go  deeper  than  he 
did  and  examine  the  case. 

"  Is  concentration  a  condition  of  progress  ? 
The  answer  is  yes,  in  those  countries  which 
have  a  bad  theory  of  finance  ;  no,  in  countries 
having  a  scientific  theory  of  finance  —  that 
is,  a  theory  in  which  money  is  based  upon  all 
commodities  and  not  on  one.  Under  the 
gold  standard  system,  the  amount  of  money 
being  limited,  it  became  of  the  utmost  impor- 
tance to  be  where  the  gold  was,  in  order  that 


36  The  Great  Awakening 

you  might  be  on  hand  to  take  advantage  im- 
mediately of  any  slip  of  your  adversary,  so 
that  you  could  transfer  some  of  his  wealth 
into  your  pocket.  Nations  became  bodies 
of  men  absolutely  intent  on  picking  each 
others'  pockets.  The  cry  was,  money,  money, 
money  !  Those  who  were  the  smartest  in 
picking  pockets  with  neatness  and  dispatch 
were  looked  up  to  as  models,  and  formed  a 
moneyed  aristocracy  before  which  other  poor 
foolish  mortals  humbly  bowed.  In  your  an- 
cient city  of  London,  the  centre  of  trade  and 
commerce  of  the  world,  the  capital  of  a  king- 
dom under  the  most  perfect  sway  of  the  gold 
standard,  people  were  huddled  together  like 
sheep  in  a  fold.  Wealth  was  constantly  be- 
fore them,  from  morning  till  night  did  they 
toil,  and  yet  what  was  their  reward .-'  Noth- 
ing but  a  bare  living.  Do  you  wonder  that 
bomb  throwers,  dynamiters,  assassins,  fanatics, 
existed  ?  Do  you  wonder  that  men  questioned 
the  principles  on  which  society  was  built  ? 
Pain  in  our  bodies  means  disease.  To  an 
economist  the  existence  of  destructionists, 
nihilists,  means  disease.  In  a  system  founded 
on  just  laws,  such  things  could  not  be. 
If  we  shun  the  warnings  of  pain,  the  ex- 
istence of  our  body  is  threatened.     So  it  is 


Contrasts  2>1 

with  society.  However,  to  return  to  concen- 
tration. 

"  It  is  evident  that  when  the  aim  of  men 
was  to  control  wealth,  they  must  be  near  each 
other.  As  their  business  was  to  transfer 
wealth  from  the  other  fellow's  pocket  to  their 
own,  it  became  necessary  to  get  close  to 
the  other  fellow's  pocket ;  hence  they  would 
pay  for  the  privilege,  hence  the  value  of 
land.  Now  when,  under  a  scientific  theory 
of  finance,  the  easiest  way  of  getting  hold 
of  the  medium  of  exchange  is  by  producing 
some  commodity,  it  is  evident  that  there  will 
be  no  need  of  getting  near  the  other  fellow's 
pocket,  since  the  amount  of  circulating  me- 
dium he  may  have  will  amount  to  nothing  in 
comparison  with  what  you  may  procure  for 
yourself  by  increasing  the  total  wealth.  So 
we  find  no  such  competition  as  existed  in 
your  day,  under  this  system,  and  no  concen- 
tration, there  being  no  cities  with  their  twenty- 
story  buildings  at  all.  Our  population  is 
spread  out  over  the  country  now,  and  I  be- 
lieve there  is  no  family  without  at  least  ten 
thousand  or  twenty  thousand  feet  of  ground 
for  a  home." 

At  this  point  the  professor  stopped,  and 
suggested  that  we  should  take  a  bicycle  ride. 


38  The  Great  Awakening 

that  he  might  show  me  some  of  the  residences 
and  homes  of  which  he  had  been  speaking. 
"  The  day  is  too  fine  to  stay  indoors,"  he  said. 
"  I  heartily  agree  with  you,  and  I  am  sure 
I  shoukl  be  delighted  to  take  a  spin." 


CHAPTER  IV. 

WE    ENJOY    A    BICYCLE    RIDE. 

We  were  soon  on  the  road  which  led  to  the 
west  for  forty  miles,  and  passed  by  some  of 
the  most  beautiful  homesteads  I  had  ever 
seen.  This  boulevard,  like  all  the  other 
streets,  was  two  hundred  feet  wide.  In  the 
centre  there  were  walks,  with  flower  beds  and 
beautiful  trees.  It  was  an  earthly  paradise. 
One  who  rides  a  bicycle  appreciates  the 
smoothness  of  a  hard  road  uncut  by  horses' 
feet  or  iron  tires.  Coaches  passed  us  at  high 
speed  with  no  noise,  and  as  I  rode  along  I 
appreciated  fully  the  fact  that  here  at  least 
was  a  rich,  prosperous,  and  happy  nation  ;  no 
squalor,  no  ragged  clothes,  no  careworn  faces. 
As  I  thought  this  over  I  could  see  that  I  my- 
self was  entirely  unsuited  for  such  conditions, 
that  my  mind  was  sordid,  my  nature  selfish  ; 
how  else  could  it  be,  brought  up  as  I  was  in 
the  nineteenth  century  to  look  on  money  as 
the  aim,  the  highest  goal  of  existence,  and 
having  as  a  guide  the  common  saying,  "  Get 


40  The  Great  Awakening 

money  —  get  it  honestly  if  you  must,  but  get 
it  "  ?  And  as  to  get  it  honestly  simply  limited 
the  extremes  to  which  one  was  allowed  to  go 
in  picking  another's  pocket,  we  were  all  in 
the  same  business. 

We  spent  the  afternoon  on  our  wheels,  and 
I  saw  countless  fine  residences  with  large 
lawns  and  beautiful  driveways.  There  was 
no  monotony  of  architecture,  and  everything 
was  to  me  new,  fresh,  and  beautiful.  In  glid- 
ing through  the  streets  the  absence  of  sur- 
face cars  astonished  me,  and  I  mentioned  my 
astonishment  to  the  professor. 

"Why,"  he  said,  "our  horseless  carriages 
take  their  place.  While  you  have  horses, 
you  must  have  pavements,  and  with  pave- 
ments tracks  are  necessary,  since  a  heavy  car 
cannot  be  run  on  the  uneven  stones  which 
are  necessary  for  the  horse ;  but  with  no 
horses  pavements  give  w^ay  to  asphalt,  and 
then  tracks  are  no  longer  needed,  hence  we 
have  returned  to  the  old  method  of  transpor- 
tation, the  stagecoach.  I  imagine,  however, 
our  coaches  are  somewhat  different  from 
yours,"  added  the  professor,  with  a  smile. 

This  brought  to  mind  the  Broadway  stage 
line  of  New  York,  with  its  rumbling  wagons 
always  on  the  point  of  falling  apart  and  its 


A  Bicycle  Ride  41 

skeletons  for  horses  ;  and  I  was  thinking  of 
the  many  uncomfortable  and  noisy  rides  I 
had  taken  in  these  old  coaches  when  a  mod- 
ern stage  passed  us.  Large,  well  lighted,  and 
running  upon  immense  pneumatic  tires,  no 
noise  was  audible  save  the  merry  laughter  and 
talk  of  the  occupants.  Driven  by  electricity 
from  an  efficient  thermopile,  it  was  controlled 
with  the  greatest  ease  and  seemed  to  stand 
for  the  perfection  of  surface  travel. 
"  What  speed  is  allowed,  professor  .-'  " 
"  Twelve  miles  an  hour  and  sometimes  fif- 
teen. Our  longer  roads  connecting  districts 
use  rails,  since  with  the  speed  obtained  — 
about  eighty  miles  an  hour  —  it  would  be  im- 
possible to  steer  and  turn  curves,  for  the  wheels 
would  not  grip  the  road,  but  only  slide  ;  but  in 
shorter  distances,  with  speeds  up  to  twenty 
miles  an  hour,  rails  are  not  used." 

We  did  not  in  this  ride  come  close  to  any 
flying  machines,  although  there  were  plenty 
of  them  in  the  air,  since  they  rarely  landed 
on  the  ground,  but  on  a  high  tower  built 
especially  for  the  purpose  and  called  an  air 
wharf.  These  buildings  were  the  highest  of 
any,  being  almost  always  over  six  stories. 
This  did  not  seem  high  to  me  ;  but  no  other 
building    that  I    remember    seeing  was    over 


42  The  Great  Awakening 

three  stories,  so  it  was  high  by  comparison. 
By  the  way,  this  fact  in  itself  showed  me  that 
land  values  had  fallen,  for  people  spread  over 
the  earth  instead  of  rising  above  it.  To  re- 
turn ;  from  the  top  of  these  buildings  a  large 
openwork  tower  of  steel  ran  up  for  a  hundred 
feet,  and  inside  of  this  was  an  elevator  ;  and  it 
was  from  the  top  of  this  tower  that  all  flying 
machines  started.  Our  ride  lasted  for  two 
hours,  and  we  returned  with  fine  appetites, 
ready  to  do  justice  to  the  dinner  awaiting  us. 

After  a  refreshing  bath,  I  joined  the  pro- 
fessor in  a  delicious  cocktail  before  sitting 
down  to  table.  He  is  an  adept  at  the  making 
of  cocktails,  and  that  one,  I  know,  went  to 
the  right  spot.  When  it  came  to  the  coffee, 
cigars,  and  cordials,  I  started  the  professor  on 
the  Money  Republic  again,  for  its  history  in- 
terested me. 

"  Well,  professor,  how  is  the  Money  Re- 
public .-*  It  is  very  interesting  to  me  now,  as 
the  republic  must  be  getting  into  a  place 
where  it  will  need  capital  for  growth.  A 
country  does  all  very  well  without  it  when 
young,  but  to  grow  it  must  have  capital." 

"Really,"  said  the  professor,  "you  do  not 
understand  the  function  held  by  capital  in 
your  day.     Let  us    consider   for  a  moment. 


A  Bicycle  Ride  43 

In  your  day  capital  was  money,  cold  cash, 
gold,  —  that  is,  in  young  countries,  of  course  ; 
as  nations  grew  older,  capital  was  represented 
by  buildings  and  other  forms  of  wealth.  Now, 
when  a  man  came  to  an  undeveloped  country, 
with  say  ^100,000  in  gold,  he  was  a  capitalist, 
and  was  called  an  aid  to  the  growth  of  the 
country.  If,  however,  he  should  pile  his  gold 
in  stacks,  he  might  wait  until  doomsday  and 
there  never  would  be  one  cent's  worth  of 
wealth  produced.  The  two  essentials  are 
land  and  labor.  How,  then,  can  a  capitalist 
produce  wealth  ?  He  cannot  produce  it ;  all 
he  can  do  is  to  assure  to  the  laborer  a  certain 
quantity  of  the  circulating  medium  if  he,  the 
laborer,  consents  to  produce  it.  From  this 
you  can  see  what  a  tremendous  hold  upon  the 
course  of  industry  have  they  who  control  the 
circulating  medium.  With  us  now  the  act  of 
creating  wealth  assures  to  the  laborer  a  cer- 
tain quantity  of  money.  As  our  issues  each 
month  are  made  on  the  actual  increase  of 
wealth  in  dollars,  you  can  easily  see  that  no 
matter  where  a  man  works  in  our  realm,  so 
long  as  he  produces  he  receives  money.  This 
is  why  we  have  no  cities.  In  your  day  it  was 
not  sufficient  to  create  wealth  ;  you  had  to 
imdersell  your  neighbor  and  compete  in  in- 


44  The  Great  Awakening 

dustrial  warfare  for  the  chance  of  exchanging 
your  wealth  for  as  much  of  the  circulating 
medium  as  you  could  possibly  get.  This  ne- 
cessitated concentration,  for  it  was  a  fight  at 
close  quarters." 

"  But  you  say  that  these  pieces  of  paper 
were  legal  tender  for  all  debts,  public  or  pri- 
vate. Now,  in  my  time  the  majority  of  the 
people  would  have  laughed  at  you  had  you 
said  that  such  stuff  was  money.  Why,  one 
of  our  ablest  statisticians  was  heard  to  say 
on  the  platform  that  only  that  was  money 
which  was  worth  as  much  without  the  govern- 
ment stamp  as  with  it  ;  and  past  history  was 
quoted  to  show  that  from  time  immemorial 
gold  had  always  had  preference  as  money." 

"  Let  us  consider,  then,  the  value  of  the 
government  stamp.  Suppose  I  owe  you  ;^ioo, 
and  you  refuse  to  take  the  piece  of  paper 
that  I  offer  you.  What  can  you  do  about  it  ? 
And  now  we  see  the  real  reason  why  gold 
has  had  preference  in  the  past.  If  the  gov- 
ernment is  stronger  than  the  creditor,  then 
the  creditor  must  accept  the  paper,  as,  if  he 
makes  a  fuss,  the  government  will  have  the 
power  to  arrest  him  and  will  use  it,  unless 
the  creditor  controls  the  government.  This 
latter  condition  was,  I  am  afraid,  the  one  prev- 


A  Bicycle  Ride  45 

alent  in  your  time.  If,  however,  the  creditor 
is  stronger  than  the  government,  the  debtor 
must  pay  in  whatever  commodity  the  creditor 
stipulates  ;  otherwise  his  very  life  will  be  in 
danger,  since  the  government  is  powerless 
to  interfere.  This  was  the  condition  before 
your  day.  In  the  past  men  have  always  been 
stronger  than  governments.  It  was  always 
the  oratory  or  personal  magnetism  of  the  in- 
dividual which  carried  the  day. 

"  It  may  be  well  to  state  here  that  by 
strong  government  I  do  not  mean  that  gov- 
ernment which  has  an  armed  force  at  its  com- 
mand, but  that  which  has  behind  it  a  large 
working  majority  of  voters  who  believe  in 
the  principles  it  tries  to  enforce.  If  ideas 
are  changed  and  the  majority  dwindles  to  a 
minority,  then  the  government  is  weak,  re- 
gardless of  its  army  and  navy,  and  will  fall 
and  give  way  to  the  government  representing 
the  majority.  We  thus  see  that  that  coun- 
try in  which  the  government  is  most  easily 
changed  to  suit  the  change  in  public  opinion 
will  exist  longest  as  a  unit,  and  will  be  dis- 
turbed by  the  fewest  political  uprisings  by 
force ;  since,  when  an  abuse  becomes  very 
great,  its  existence  will  be  evident  to  the  ma- 
jority of  voters,  and  the  then  existing  govern- 


46  The  Great  Awakening 

ment  will  be  overturned  with  no  more  excite- 
ment than  a  political  campaign.  Realizing 
this,  we  must  see  that,  to  change  a  policy,  one 
must  change  opinions. 

"  To  return.  Since  it  was  a  great  advan- 
tage to  the  creditor  to  make  the  debtor  pay 
in  a  commodity  of  which  the  quantity  in  ex- 
istence was  small,  and  which  by  its  properties 
lent  itself  to  hoarding,  he  chose  gold  and 
silver ;  and  when  governments  were  formed 
and  money  issued,  it  was  only  gold  and  silver 
money,  since  that  was  the  creditor's  money 
and  the  creditor  was  a  powerful  man." 

"  But  in  our  time,  professor,  men  said  that 
government  could  not  by  legislation  create 
values  ;  they  claimed  that  government  never, 
entered  trade." 

"  They  were  wrong.  Governments  were  the 
heaviest  purchasers  in  any  market.  There 
was  in  the  Germany  of  your  time  a  million- 
aire named  Krupp.  This  man's  whole  fortune 
depended  on  the  fact  that  governments  were 
buyers  of  iron  and  steel  in  the  shape  of  war 
materials.  There  were  numbers  of  other 
men  who  got  a  living  trading  with  the  gov- 
ernment. Now,  legislation  can  create  market 
value.  Given  a  rich  government,  and  it  can 
increase  the  market  value  of  any  commodity 


A  Bicycle  Ride  47 

whatever  by  entering  the  market  as  an  unHm- 
ited  buyer  of  that  commodity.  It  was  only 
when  governments  were  poor  and  did  not 
hold  the  taxing  power  that  their  legislation 
was  of  little  value  in  trade. 

"  In  our  African  republic  it  was  only  neces- 
sary for  a  man  to  suggest  a  way  in  which 
the  total  wealth  of  the  community  could  be 
increased,  and  to  convince  others  of  this  fact. 
There  never  was  a  lack  of  laborers,  since  any 
increase  in  wealth  meant  to  them  more 
money.  So  we  see  that  because  of  this  the 
growth  of  this  republic  was  tremendous  :  it 
soon  became  quite  a  power,  and  its  area  was 
greatly  increased.  There  were  no  cities,  no 
misery,  no  squalor ;  everybody  produced,  as 
otherwise  he  got  no  money  —  this  being  quite 
the  opposite  of  the  conditions  in  your  times, 
when  the  manipulator  got  all  the  money  and 
the  producer  none.  Of  course  the  increase 
of  wealth  was  enormous,  and  as  it  was  equally 
divided  all  had  plenty,  so  that  soon  the  hours 
constitutiiig  a  day's  work  were  decreased, 
until  now  we  work  only  four  hours  a  day.  In 
your  time  some  did  not  work  at  all,  others 
worked  seventeen  hours  a  day ;  with  us  all 
work  four  hours  a  day. 

"  Our  morals  are  far  ahead  of  yours.     Con- 


48  The  Great  Awakening 

centration  could  not  but  breed  immoral  char- 
acters.  The  social  evil  is  extinct  now.  To 
have  intercourse  with  the  opposite  sex  is  the 
natural  appetite  of  humanity.  To  do  it  mor- 
ally is  by  marriage.  But  in  your  time  it  was 
hard  enough  to  support  oneself  without  feed- 
ing a  wife  and  children,  so  we  see  that  as  the 
nation  gets  older  men  marry  later,  or  marry 
not  at  all.  The  bachelor  of  your  time,  with 
his  morals  and  his  mode  of  life,  the  prosti- 
tutes, the  thieves,  murderers,  maniacs  —  all 
were  the  offspring  of  that  barbarous  financial 
scheme  which  had  been  handed  down  to  you 
from  the  Middle  Ages.  The  philosopher  must 
take  this  calmly  and  lay  it  to  the  ignorance 
of  the  masses. 

"  If  in  your  time  you  had  told  an  average 
man  that  one  commodity  could  not  possibly 
be  a  just  standard  for  the  measurement  of  the 
values  of  all  commodities,  he  would  have 
looked  at  you  blankly  and  told  you  you  were 
a  fool.  Years  before  your  day  this  same 
fight  was  made  over  the  divine  right  of 
kings.  Progress  is  slow.  But  to  return  to 
our  republic  !  Its  growth  was  so  rapid  that 
very  soon  all  eyes  were  centred  on  it.  The 
discontent  in  other  nations  grew  stronger  and 
stronger,   until   finally  the  smouldering    fires 


A  Bicycle  Ride  49 

burst  out,  and  then  the  havoc  and  ruin 
wrought  were  frightful.  The  lives  lost  num- 
bered hundreds  of  thousands  ;  property  on  all 
sides  was  destroyed,  chaos  reigned  supreme, 
and  during  these  months  the  most  tremen- 
dous anxiety  was  felt  as  to  what  would  be  the 
result.  Now  it  is  of  course  a  matter  of  his- 
tory. Out  of  the  flames  the  phoenix  rose. 
Never  more  could  the  few  prey  upon  the 
many.  All  governments  were  on  the  new 
foundation,  and  peace  and  prosperity  again 
settled  over  the  earth.  This  regeneration  of 
society  has  been  considered  of  such  impor- 
tance that  our  new  era  begins  with  it.  It  is 
the  year  2 1 5  now  with  us,  but  measuring  from 
the  birth  of  Christ,  it  would  be  2199.  The 
exact  date  of  the  beginning  is  June  10,  1984, 
A.D.,  this  being  the  date  of  the  birth  of 
Thomas  H.  Blackburn,  who  was  the  leader  of 
the  regeneration  and  the  direct  cause  of  the 
chaotic  era  from  which  came  such  great 
results.  He  was  struck  down  by  the  hand  of 
the  assassin.  The  day  of  his  birth  is  now  an 
international  holiday  with  us." 

"  I  assure  you,  professor,"  I  said,  as  he 
paused  in  his  history,  "never  has  anything 
interested  me  so  much.  The  period  of  regen- 
eration must  be  even  more  interesting  than 
what  you  have  told  me." 


50  The  Great  Awakening 

"  It  is  ;  and  I  want  you  to  come  with  me 
to-morrow  night  and  hear  Professor  Waters 
speak  on  it.     You  will  enjoy  it,  I  am  sure." 

"  It  will  be  a  great  pleasure,  and  I  shall  be 
very  glad  of  the  opportunity." 

Thus  ended  our  conversation  upon  the 
Money  Republic,  and  we  adjourned  to  the 
library,  where  I  spent  the  evening  in  reading 
the  latest  volume  of  Professor  Hazelit  upon 
"  Mental  Telegraphy :  Its  Effect  upon  the 
Brain  Cells  and  the  Means  of  Acquiring  Effi- 
ciency in  the  Art."  A  truly  wonderful  book 
this,  and  its  explanation  of  that  phenomenon 
by  natural  laws  is  extremely  lucid.  I  became 
absorbed  in  it. 


CHAPTER   V. 

WHICH  TREATS  OF  THE  OFT-PREDICTED 
REVOLUTION  WHICH  FINALLY  OCCURRED 
IN    THE    YEAR    2021. 

On  the  night  of  the  lecture  the  professor 
and  I  started  together  for  the  hall.  It  was  a 
lovely  moonlight  night,  and  the  walk  down  the 
boulevard  was  delightful. 

"  Nature  is  the  same  as  it  was  two  hun- 
dred years  ago,  professor,  and  how  lovely  it 
is!" 

"Yes,"  he  answered,  "but  do  you  know 
that  our  condition  in  life  affects  our  apprecia- 
tion of  nature  .-'  In  your  time  how  could  the 
masses,  who  had  to  toil  from  morning  to 
night  in  dark  rooms,  know  anything  of 
nature,  its  beauties  and  its  charms }  When 
one  has  worked  hard  for  ten  hours  in  a  day, 
one  is  in  no  condition  to  think  of  anything 
but  the  pleasure  of  the  moment,  and  when 
crowded  together  in  small  areas  this  invaria- 
bly led  to  low  morals  and  filth.      You  were 


52  The  Great  Awakening 

saying  that  nature  had  not  changed ;  that  is 
true,  but  I  think  that  soon  man  will  change 
it.  There  is  an  invention,  I  understand,  that 
is  about  to  be  announced  which  will  add  to 
the  length  of  the  year.  Our  earth  is  rushing 
through  the  ether  at  the  rate  of  a  thousand 
miles  a  minute ;  and  this  invention  will  put  a 
brake  on  it,  so  to  speak,  with  a  view  to  con- 
verting the  kinetic  energy  of  the  earth  into 
electrical  energy.  The  use  of  this  machine 
will  be  limited  at  first,  in  order  to  ascertain 
just  what  happens  to  the  earth's  motion  ;  but, 
of  course,  if  it  can  be  used  safely  it  will  be  a 
great  saving,  as  our  supply  of  electricity  will 
be  unlimited,  at  least  for  millions  of  years." 

When  we  got  to  the  hall  we  found  it 
crowded,  and  had  considerable  difficulty  in  get- 
ting to  our  seats.  At  eight  o'clock  Professor 
Waters  appeared,  amidst  great  applause.  He 
was  a  tall  man,  well  proportioned,  with  a 
smooth  face,  high  forehead,  and  dark,  piercing 
eyes.  His  hair  was  black  and  very  thick. 
He  had  an  easy  but  commanding  presence. 
The  following  was  the  lecture  as  I  remember 
it :  — 

"  Ladies  aiid  Gentlemen :  The  subject 
which  I  am  to  treat  to-night  is  the  Era  of 
Regeneration.     Although    this   era    covers  a 


The  Revolution  53 

number  of  years,  properly  speaking,  I  wish  to 
talk  to  you  only  of  the  few  years  previous  to 
and  following  the  so-called  Chaotic  Era.  We 
are,  I  think,  familiar  with  the  formation  and 
rise  of  the  Money  Republic.  That  was  the 
subject  which  I  tried  to  treat  very  fully  in  my 
last  two  lectures.  This  evening,  then,  we  are 
mainly  concerned  with  the  acts  which  led  up 
to  the  tremendous  revolution  of  2021. 

"  There  had  been  in  the  United  States,  dur- 
ing the  period  following  the  formation  of  the 
Money  Republic,  a  number  of  men  who  had 
watched  its  enormous  progress  very  carefully. 
Many  of  these  men  had  journeyed  to  the  Re- 
public to  learn  its  methods,  a  great  number 
had  gone  to  become  citizens,  but  many  had 
remained  at  home  and  devoted  their  energies 
to  sowing  the  seed  of  revolutionary  feelings. 
At  the  dawn  of  the  twenty-first  century  the 
gold  standard  theory  of  finance  was  so  strong 
that,  in  spite  of  the  example  of  the  republic 
across  the  water,  that  theory  still  flourished. 
The  governments  holding  it  were  under  the 
absolute  control  of  the  few  who  manipulated 
the  currency.  Of  course  it  goes  without  say- 
ing that  these  men  were  creditors,  since  oth- 
erwise they  would  not  have  been  anxious  to 
decrease  the  volume  of  money.     As  this  state 


54  The  Great  Awakening 

of  affairs  is  so  strange  to  us,  let  me  give  you 
an  illustration  of  it.  There  were  in  circula- 
tion in  our  country,  during  the  ancient  Civil 
War  in  1 862,  a  lot  of  notes  called  legal  tenders, 
and  these  notes  were  redeemable  in  coin,  that 
is,  either  gold  or  silver,  but  in  nothing  else. 
Now,  by  an  act  of  legislation  those  notes  were 
made  redeemable  in  gold.  It  is  evident  that 
this  act  had  for  its  end  the  draining  of  the 
treasury's  gold,  —  and  why  ?  My  friends,  for 
a  very  simple  reason.  It  was  necessary  that 
a  certain  amount  of  gold  should  be  kept  as  a 
reserve.  Now,  if  the  government  had  kept 
the  right  of  paying  these  greenbacks  in  gold 
or  silver,  upon  their  coming  in  in  large  quan- 
tities they  might  have  been  redeemed  in  silver, 
thus  keeping  the  gold  reserve  intact ;  and  this 
fact  of  redeeming  in  silver  would  have  tended 
to  prevent  redemption,  since,  silver  being 
bulky,  men  would  have  preferred  the  paper, 
and  it  would  have  been  kept  in  circulation 
where  it  belonged.  But  the  few  men  behind 
the  legislation  did  not  want  the  gold  reserve 
kept  intact;  it  was  not  for  their  selfish  inter- 
ests that  the  government  should  have  gold, 
since,  if  the  reserve  dropped,  gold  would  have 
to  be  borrowed  on  bonds ;  and  thus  the  action 
of  redeeming  the  greenbacks  forced  a  bond 


The  Revolution  55 

issue.  Of  course  this  issue  did  not  come  im- 
mediately after  the  legislation,  but  the  gold 
men  did  not  care  for  that,  —  they  knew  it  was 
only  a  question  of  a  short  time.  They  were 
willing  to  wait  because  they  would  be  sure  to 
keep  the  government  in  debt. 

"  In  this  way  we  see  that,  by  concerted  action 
on  the  part  of  bankers  and  capitalists,  a  bond 
issue  could  at  any  time  be  forced,  for,  having 
control  of  the  currency,  they  could  easily  drain 
the  treasury  of  gold.  Knowing  this,  we  can 
understand,  somewhat,  the  influence  gold  had 
in  legislation.  The  financial  system  had  such 
a  hold  on  the  people  it  hurt  that  it  seemed  a 
hopeless  task  to  teach  its  errors  to  the  lower 
classes.  There  were,  however,  a  number  of 
men  who  worked  faithfully  and  without  re- 
ward for  the  interests  of  humanity.  These 
men  worked  on  their  own  lines  and  did  not 
join  with  any  of  the  other  sets  of  workers. 
They  realized  it  was  a  question  of  education, 
and  were  willing  to  educate  slowly. 

**  It  was  not  until  the  last  of  the  twentieth 
century  that  activity  was  shown.  You,  of 
course,  know  to  whom  I  am  going  to  refer 
now.  Is  it  necessary  for  any  one  in  this  vast 
audience  to  be  told  who  it  was  that  carried 
the  era  of  regeneration  to  a  successful  termi- 


56  The  Great  Awakeninc)^ 

nation  ;  who  it  was  that  in  the  midst  of  scorn 
and  enmity  completed  the  great  work  of  refor- 
mation ;  who  it  was  that  in  the  United  States 
Senate,  May  4,  2021,  defied  the  power  of  the 
capitalist,  and  in  his  speech,  which  I  shall 
read  to  you  to-night,  warned  his  fellow  sena- 
tors —  yes,  warned  the  world,  of  what  was  to 
come  ?  If,  I  say,  there  is  one  so  ignorant 
that  he  does  not  know  this  man,  let  him  look 
while  I  show  him  the  statue,  let  him  listen 
while  I  pronounce  the  name  of  Thomas  H. 
Blackburn." 

As  Professor  Waters  uncovered  the  statue 
which  stood  on  a  pedestal  on  the  platform, 
the  audience  arose  as  one  man,  to  a  cheer  such 
as  never  was  heard  before.  Such  enthusiasm 
and  applause  showed  me  the  feeling  the 
people  had  towards  this  man,  and  I  thought 
to  myself,  "  This  is  their  George  Washing- 
ton." When  quiet  had  been  restored.  Pro- 
fessor Waters  continued  with  the  lecture. 

"Thomas  H.  Blackburn  was  born  in  Illi- 
nois, in  a  city  called  Springfield,  on  June  10, 
1984.  His  father  was  in  the  dry  goods  busi- 
ness and  was  a  prosperous  merchant,  except 
that  he,  like  the  others,  suffered  from  peri- 
odic panics.  The  son  had  a  good  education, 
high  school  and  college,  I   believe,  and  then 


The  Revolution  57 

entered  his  father's  business  as  a  small  part- 
ner. In  his  college  days  he  had  read  much 
of  the  money-reform  literature  which  was  be- 
ing circulated  very  freely  just  at  that  time  by 
our  friends,  who  had  a  number  of  prominent 
citizens  of  the  Money  Republic  behind  them. 
This  literature  had  left  a  deep  impression  on 
him,  and  being  of  an  investigating  nature,  he 
had  not  been  content  to  follow  the  party 
leaders,  but  had  done  some  thinking  on  his 
own  account  —  a  thing  very  uncommon  in 
those  days.  He  never  told  his  father  of  his 
theories,  since  Blackburn  senior  was  a  man 
who,  if  you  asked  him  why  he  always  voted 
the  same  ticket,  said  indignantly,  '  Why  do  I 
vote  for  the  Republican  party,  sir  >  Why,  sir, 
that  party  was  good  enough  for  my  father,  sir  ; 
it  is  my  party,  sir  ;  it  is  good  enough  for  my 
son,  sir,'  and  he  considered  the  question  set- 
tled. For  myself,  I  fail  to  see  the  force  of 
this  argument. 

"  In  his  work  at  the  office,  Blackburn  jun- 
ior, after  he  had  acquired  the  necessary  knowl- 
edge of  the  details,  found  that  he  could  draw 
his  share  of  the  profits,  which  amounted  to 
about  $2,500,  without  doing  anything  but 
staying  in  the  office  and  seeing  that  every- 
thing was  right.     This  was  a  very  easy  task, 


58  The  Great  Awakening 

and  he  wondered  why  it  was  necessary  to 
have  to  look  out  for  these  things.  He  soon 
saw  to  the  bottom  of  the  barbarous  system. 
He  saw  that,  with  a  hmited  quantity  of  money, 
it  was  a  fight  to  the  death  to  get  what  there 
was  ;  and  he  saw  that  if  he  did  not  stay  in  the 
office,  some  concern,  also  in  the  fight,  would 
cut  his  throat  while  he  was  not  looking.  I 
am  inclined  to  think  that  Blackburn  did  not 
like  this  state  of  affairs.  He  shows  this  in 
his  early  writings  and  his  later  speeches.  His 
first  writings  were  published  by  the  little 
band  of  money  reformers,  and  were  essays  on 
business  in  general,  in  which  he  set  forth 
with  great  clearness  the  functions  of  the  va- 
rious men  in  different  departments.  In  a 
pamphlet  on  economics  he  showed  very  ably 
that  to  exchange  goods  for  money  was  only 
half  a  transaction,  the  other  half  being  the 
exchange  of  the  money  for  goods,  and  there- 
fore, he  reasoned,  it  must  be  the  money  which 
fits  itself  to  trade,  and  not  trade  which  fits 
itself  to  money. 

''  These  writings  were  all  under  an  assumed 
name,  and  he  was  only  twenty-three  at  the 
time  of  publication.  His  father  had  known 
nothing  of  this  work,  but  had  fumed  a 
great   deal  over  some    articles    he  had  read 


The  Revolution  59 

in  the  daily  papers,  little  knowing  they  were 
written  by  his  son.  Of  course  the  break  had 
to  come  sooner  or  later,  and  when  it  came  the 
son  was  too  firm  in  his  convictions  to  try  to 
patch  up  the  matter.  He  quietly  withdrew 
what  little  wealth  he  was  entitled  to  from  the 
business,  and  went  to  the  city  called  Chicago — • 
which  at  that  time  was  in  the  same  state  as 
Springfield  —  on  the  border  of  Lake  Michigan. 
This  city  held  over  three  million  people,  and 
in  some  parts  of  it  the  condition  of  these 
people  was  one  of  such  filth  and  degradation 
that  I  think  I  may  fairly  say  it  is  beyond  our 
comprehension.  Here  he  drifted  into  politics, 
and  we  lose  sight  of  him  until  he  appears 
in  the  city  government. 

"  I  think  there  is  nothing  in  this  part  of  his 
career  of  which  I  wish  to  talk  to-night.  He 
went  from  city  to  state,  from  state  to  na- 
tional politics,  and  at  the  age  of  thirty  we  find 
him  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate.  This,  you 
know,  was  the  Upper  House,  which  did  not 
become  extinct  until  after  the  reformation. 
Here  he  did  good  work  on  committees,  showed 
much  ability  in  speaking  of  foreign  affairs, 
and  was  continually  elected  from  his  state 
until  his  untimely  death.  It  was  during  the 
last  seven  years  of  his  life  that  he  formed  a 


6o  The  Great  Awakening 

secret  political  machine ;  for  he  recognized 
that  the  time  was  approaching  when  the  blow 
should  be  struck,  and  he  prepared  himself  for 
it.  He  had  been  receiving  news  from  all 
over  the  civilized  world  that  the  example,  the 
progress  of  the  Money  Republic,  and  the 
teaching  of  the  believers  in  that  theory  of 
finance  had  at  last  had  an  effect,  and  that  at 
last  the  people  understood  what  had  been  go- 
ing on  and  were  determined  to  stand  it  no 
longer ;  so  that  he  thought  the  realization  of 
this  fact  would  influence  senators  more  than 
gold  possibly  could.  He  was  not  afraid  of 
the  Lower  House.  Consequently,  in  April, 
202 1,  the  last  effort  to  attain  the  end  peace- 
ably was  begun.  It  was  generally  understood 
by  the  labor  leaders  that,  if  Blackburn  was 
not  successful  in  the  passage  of  the  finance 
bill  through  the  Senate,  the  end  of  his  speech 
was  to  be  the  cue  for  a  tremendous  revolution 
throughout  the  world.  The  foreign  workers 
were  content  to  await  the  result  of  Black- 
burn's efforts,  since,  if  the  United  States 
changed  its  system  peaceably,  foreign  govern- 
ments would  fall  in  line.  So  the  reformers 
said  they  would  wait  for  this,  but  if  the  sen- 
ator was  unsuccessful,  then  an  international 
uprising  must  immediately  follow.    That  Sen- 


The  Revolution  6i 

ator  Blackburn  knew  his  efforts  would  be 
watched  with  great  interest  is  true,  but  that 
he  ever  suspected  his  speech  would  precipitate 
what  it  did  is  not  true.  We  have  abundance 
of  proof  in  his  letters  and  papers  of  what  he 
had  intended  to  do  if  unsuccessful,  and  no- 
where do  we  find  that  he  had  even  a  suspi- 
cion of  what  was  to  follow  his  exit  from  the 
Senate  chamber.  Even  the  letters  to  him 
from  the  labor  agitators  conveyed  no  informa- 
tion concerning  the  plans  they  must  have 
known.  It  is  probable  they  did  not  dare  tell 
him  from  fear  of  his  breaking  down  under 
the  tremendous  strain,  and  it  is  also  probable 
that  the  size  of  the  revolution  was  greatly  in- 
creased when  the  news  of  his  death  at  the 
hands  of  another  senator  was  telegraphed 
over  the  world.  At  any  rate,  he  came  into 
the  Senate  chamber  on  the  eve  of  May  4, 
looking  calm  but  determined. 

"  After  much  fighting  the  bill  had  been 
pushed  through  the  House  ;  it  had  come  to 
the  Senate,  but  had  met  with  obstruction  and 
had  not  been  passed.  Just  before  he  rose  to 
speak,  Blackburn  told  his  friend.  Senator 
Chase,  that  he  intended  to  take  a  trip  abroad 
to  improve  his  health,  get  rest,  and  confer 
with  labor  leaders  there.    This  is  also  another 


62  The  Great  Awakening 

proof  that  our  senator  had  no  knowledge  of 
what  was  to  come,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
part  of  his  speech  was  prophetic.  It  was  half 
past  ten  when  Blackburn  arose.  He  spoke 
for  ten  minutes  only,  but  his  speech  was  the 
tinder  that  fired  the  reformation  of  202 1 .  It 
was  as  follows,  and  history  says  it  was  deliv- 
ered by  Blackburn  in  his  best  possible  voice 
and  manner : — 

Blackburn's  Speech. 

"  *  Mr.  Presidefit :  I  wish  to  say  a  few 
words  upon  the  action  of  the  Senate  in  refus- 
ing this  finance  bill.  For  a  short  time,  only 
a  short  tmie,  I  wish  to  talk  to  you,  not  as  pol- 
iticians, but  as  men. 

"  '  Many  years  ago,  when  our  forefathers 
settled  in  this  beautiful  country,  a  common 
danger  from  tyranny  caused  the  formation  of 
a  compact  government,  with  rights  vested  in 
our  Constitution.  In  that  Constitution  it  was 
declared  "all  men  are  born  free  and  equal," 
and  history  tells  us  that  the  men  who  framed 
this  document  were  honorable  men  —  men  who 
had  the  freedom  and  liberty  of  the  masses  at 
heart,  men  who  gave  up  in  many  instances 
chances  of  personal  advancement  for  the  sake 
of  benefiting  others. 


The  Revolution  63 

"  '  For  two  centuries  and  a  half  descendants 
of  these  men  have  occupied  this  continent ;  for 
two  hundred  and  forty-five  years  have  the 
rising  generations  been  taught  to  respect  and 
value  the  Constitution  —  yet  what  do  we  find 
to-day  ?  How  have  the  legislators  understood 
that  document  which  in  their  childhood  they 
were  taught  to  respect  ?  Have  they  endeav- 
ored to  give  all  men  equal  opportunities,  to 
crush  at  all  hazards  powerful  monopolies  ? 
Have  they  acted  toward  the  people  they  repre- 
sent as  Washington  and  the  statesmen  of  his 
time  did  ?  Alas  !  any  schoolboy  will  tell  you 
that  a  man  goes  into  politics  nowadays  not  to 
represent  his  district,  but  to  enrich  himself ; 
any  schoolboy  will  tell  you  that  our  politics 
are  controlled  by  the  lowest  and  meanest  of 
our  citizens,  and  that  the  only  man  repre- 
sented is  the  one  capable  of  buying  a  repre- 
sentative. This  is  but  too  true.  The  history 
of  this  country  is  the  history  of  the  rise  of 
the  money  power ;  and  within  the  last  century 
we  have  had,  as  every  one  knows,  nineteen 
Presidents  whose  elections  have  been  bought 
by  capitalists  supporting  the  gold  standard, 
and  our  policy  has  been  shaped  by  these  same 
capitalists,  until  now  things  have  reached  such 
a  stage  that  it  is  time  to  call  a  halt. 


64  The  Great  Awakening 

" '  Our  whole  political  system  is  honey- 
combed with  corruption,  and  the  man  who  has 
the  largest  purse,  who  is  the  most  unscrupu- 
lous, or  who  controls  the  most  perfect  political 
machine,  shapes  the  policy  which  governs  the 
welfare  of  200,000,000  of  souls.  You  all 
know  well  enough  what  I  mean  ;  and  also  it  is 
not  necessary  for  me  to  tell  you  who  is  the 
head  of  the  syndicate  which  furnishes  the 
money  behind  the  obstruction  to  this  finance 
bill.  This  same  thing  has  been  done  before ; 
and  this  same  syndicate  has  feathered  its  nests 
several  times  on  bond  issues  into  which  it  has 
forced  the  government,  which  never  could 
have  occurred  except  under  this  unjust  system 
of  finance.  If  we  look  around  us  to-day, 
what  do  we  see  as  the  result  of  this  mon- 
strous system.-*  We  see  gigantic  trusts,  tre- 
mendous monopolies,  which  wield  their  power 
only  for  the  benefit  of  the  few  who  own  them, 
which  control  industry  and  direct  it  only  into 
those  channels  which  cater  to  the  few,  which 
corrupt  legislators  with  their  wealth,  and  cause 
the  degeneration,  yes,  the  decay  of  the  body 
politic,  which  utterly  ignore  those  who  labor, 
those  who  produce  all  the  wealth  from  which 
these  same  monopolies  gain  their  sustenance  ; 
and  when  discontent  shows  its  head  and  the 


The  Revolution  65 

toilers  murmur,  what  is  done  ?  A  little  char- 
ity perhaps  is  given,  but  no  justice.  Weak, 
incapable  men,  the  tools  of  capitalists,  are 
sent  out,  and  the  poor,  ignorant  people  listen 
to  honeyed  words  about  the  rights  of  labor. 
They  are  told  that  civilization  must  see  to  it 
that  labor  is  better  rewarded  ;  they  are  rocked 
to  sleep  with  fulsome  promises  of  immediate 
financial  legislation  in  their  interest  ;  they  are 
told  that  the  administration  is  toiling  night 
and  day  in  order  that  a  better  system  may  be 
inaugurated.  This  is  what  they  are  promised, 
this  is  what  they  are  told  ;  and  in  their  igno- 
rance, and  with  almost  superhuman  patience, 
they  believe  and  are  content  to  wait.  By 
heaven,  how  long  will  this  patience  last.-* 

"  '  But  what  is  done  ?  I  ask  you,  gentlemen, 
what  is  done  .''  Nothing  !  At  the  last  election 
more  than  $20,000,000  was  spent  to  bring  the 
present  administration  into  power ;  to  bring 
into  power  that  party  which  three  years  ago 
promised  on  the  stump  such  wide-reaching 
and  beneficial  reforms  ;  and  in  these  three 
years  what  has  been  done  ?  Nothing  !  How 
long  is  this  to  last  ?  How  long  is  this  to 
last .''  How  long  will  this  administration  seek 
to  divert  to  foreign  questions  the  minds  of  our 
people,  in  order  that  they  may  be  less  occu- 


66  The  Great  Awakening" 

pied  with  this  vital  problem  which  is  knock- 
ing at  our  doors  for  admittance,  and  which,  if 
entrance  is  refused,  will  by  the  very  force  of 
its  momentum  overthrow  the  reigning  powers 
and  precipitate  us  all  into  a  sea  of  chaos,  the 
like  of  which  the  world  has  never  seen  ? 

"  '  Can  this  continue  forever  ?  Will  the  peo- 
ple always  be  patient  ?  How  long  have  we 
got  to  stand  this  tyranny  ?  Fellow  senators, 
I  pray  you  to  remember  we  are  all  human  be- 
ings, that  the  lowest  and  poorest  of  us,  whom 
I  represent  to  you  to-night,  are  flesh  and 
blood.  Hath  not  a  poor  man  eyes  ?  Hath 
not  a  poor  man  hands,  organs,  dimensions, 
senses,  affections,  passions  ?  Fed  with  the 
same  food,  hurt  with  the  same  weapons,  sub- 
ject to  the  same  diseases,  healed  by  the  same 
means,  warmed  and  cooled  by  the  same  win- 
ter and  summer  as  a  rich  man  is  ?  If  you 
prick  us,  do  we  not  bleed  ?  If  you  tickle  us, 
do  we  not  laugh  ?  If  you  poison  us,  do  we 
not  die  ?  And  if  you  wrong  us,  shall  we  not 
revenge  ?  If  we  are  like  you  in  the  rest,  we 
will  resemble  you  in  that.  The  villainies  you 
teach  us  we  will  execute  ;  and  it  will  go  hard, 
but  we  will  better  the  instruction.' 

"And  here  history  says  that  Blackburn 
paused    and  stood  with  folded   arms,  gazing 


The  Revolution  67 

from  face  to  face,  his  manner,  more  than  his 
words,  holding  the  attention  of  every  one. 

"  '  I  stand  to-night  to  represent  suffering  hu- 
manity to  you ;  I  warn  you  that  your  love  of 
gold  will  be  your  ruin  ;  that  the  system  of 
government  which  you  represent  is  tottering, 
and  like  Rome  of  old,  the  hordes  of  barba- 
rians are  waiting,  only  waiting  for  the  mo- 
ment of  invasion.  Are  they  on  our  borders  ? 
No,  they  are  already  among  us,  in  our  cities  ; 
they  are  the  toilers,  the  workers,  the  produ- 
cers of  all  that  wealth  which,  by  God,  you  — 
you,  I  say  — you  who  are  supposed  to  repre- 
sent them,  steal  from  them.  Are  you  so  blind 
that  you  do  not  see  this  .■'  Are  you  so  vile 
that  you  will  not  see  it .-'  Must  it  be  written 
on  the  walls  of  this  Senate  as  it  was  in  Baby- 
lon, "  Weighed  in  the  balance  and  found 
wanting  "  ? ' 

"  At  this  there  was  an  angry  murmur,  and 
Blackburn  raised  his  hand.  '  One  moment 
more.  I  leave  this  Senate  to-night  a  sorrow- 
ful man.  Could  my  death  bring  relief  to 
suffering  thousands  I  would  not  hesitate.  I 
have  given  you  warning,  now  you  must  take 
the  consequences,  and  God  will  decide  the 
issue.  Mr.  President  and  fellow  senators,  I 
have  done.' 


68  The  Great  Awakening 

"  Blackburn  then  calmly  left  the  Senate 
and  was  immediately  driven  to  his  apart- 
ments. Here  his  control  gave  way,  and  he 
became  prostrated  as  a  result  of  the  nervous 
strain. 

"  These  were  the  last  words  Blackburn  ever 
spoke  in  the  United  States  Senate,  and  they 
were  sent  by  wire  to  all  parts  of  the  world ; 
the  cue  had  been  given,  the  revolution  be- 
gan. In  Chicago  that  night  six  fires  broke 
out  simultaneously,  and  the  rapidity  with 
which  they  spread  soon  put  them  beyond  the 
control  of  the  fire  department,  so  that  the 
whole  city  was  soon  in  flames  ;  and  although 
word  was  sent  for  help,  nothing  could  be  done 
to  stop  the  conflagration  which  was  soon  rag- 
ing. The  people  of  London  awoke  to  find 
their  city  in  flames  and  mobs  in  the  streets  ; 
it  was  the  same  with  Paris,  Berlin,  Vienna ; 
and,  in  short,  the  work  of  organization  was  so 
complete  that,  from  a  reign  of  apparent  peace, 
the  world  passed  to  one  of  bloody  war  in  the 
short  space  of  an  hour. 

"  It  was  not  until  the  morning  papers  were 
read  that  Senator  Blackburn  appreciated  fully 
the  importance  of  his  speech.  He  hurried 
off  to  telegraph  the  leaders  with  whom  he 
was  in  touch,  in  the  vain  hope  of  influencing 


The  Revolution  69 

them  to  prevent  the  spreading  of  the  rebel- 
lion, and  went  to  the  hotel  to  send  his  tele- 
grams, after  which,  as  he  was  crossing  the 
office,  he  passed  a  group  of  senators  who 
were  talking  angrily  of  his  speech  and  the  re- 
bellion which  it  had  seemingly  precipitated. 
They  did  not  see  him  until  he  had  gone  quite 
a  distance,  but  then  they  recognized  his  fig- 
ure and  cried  out.  It  is  not  known  who  it  was 
that  fired  the  fatal  shot ;  there  is,  however, 
abundant  proof  that  it  was  a  senator,  and  that 
he  was  quickly  spirited  away  by  his  friends  dur- 
ing the  excitement.  Blackburn  was  carried 
into  an  inner  office  and  laid  on  a  sofa,  while  a 
physician  was  summoned.  He  lived  that  day 
and  all  night,  but  he  never  regained  conscious- 
ness ;  and  towards  noon  of  the  following  day 
his  condition  grew  much  worse,  and  he  died 
that  afternoon. 

"  When  the  cause  of  his  death  was  known, 
the  fury  of  the  mobs  on  both  sides  of  the 
water  was  terrible.  The  leaders  had  no  con- 
trol whatsoever,  and  the  Chaotic  Era  ran  its 
full  course ;  mob  law  ruled  everywhere  for 
four  months,  during  which  time  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  lives  were  lost  and  thousands  of 
millions  of  dollars'  worth  of  property  was  de- 
stroyed. 


70  The  Great  Awakening 

"  As  I  shall  discuss  this  Chaotic  Era  in  a 
lecture  by  itself,  I  shall  not  stop  to  say  any- 
thing, except  that  it  was  safely  passed  and  the 
new  governments  formed  were  based  practi- 
cally on  that  of  the  Money  Republic.  Of 
course  details  had  to  be  changed  to  fit  condi- 
tions, but  the  people  had  learned  the  lesson, 
for  never  after  this  could  the  circulating  me- 
dium be  controlled  and  restricted  by  a  few  in- 
dividuals, and  thus  never  could  the  laborer  be 
enslaved  by  the  capitalist," 

The  last  part  of  Professor  Waters'  lecture 
I  cannot  remember  with  distinctness,  for  my 
mind  was  occupied  during  the  rest  of  the 
evening  with  thinking  of  what  he  had  already 
said. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

A  PARABLE  IS  ALWAYS   INTERESTING,  AND 
THIS    ONE    IS    INSTRUCTIVE. 

On  the  way  home  the  professor  entertained 
me  with  the  parable  of  the  clock-makers, 
which  doubtless  many  of  you  have  heard,  but 
for  the  benefit  of  those  less  fortunate  I  give 
it  as  the  professor  told  it. 

"  Once  upon  a  time  there  were  a  lot  of 
clock-makers  who  started  to  make  a  clock. 
They  got  a  spring,  a  lot  of  wheels,  and  a  frame  ; 
and  each  being  anxious  to  show  what  he  could 
do,  they  all  had  a  share  in  the  work. 

"  The  framework  they  called  government, 
the  wheels  they  called  the  social  or  industrial 
system,  the  escapement  money,  the  spring  la- 
bor, and  the  little  hands,  called  happiness,  were 
made  to  show  by  their  motion  the  perfection  of 
the  other  parts.  They  were  very  proud  of  their 
machine  when  it  was  finished,  and  setting  it 
on  a  pedestal  which  they  called  the  consent 
of  the  governed,  they  brought  in  their  neigh- 


72  The  Great  Awakening 

bors  to  see  the  Httle  hands  go  round  ;  and 
when  everything  was  ready  and  all  were 
looking,  they  started  the  machine. 

"  The  hands  began  to  move.  *  Look, 
look  ! '  cried  they,  *  is  n't  it  fine  .-'  See  how 
complex  it  is,  see  how  all  the  wheels  move  ! ' 
And  they  began  to  chatter  away  at  a  great 
rate  on  the  wonderful  success  of  their  labor. 
While  this  was  going  on,  the  hands  of  happi- 
ness stopped.  '  Hullo  ! '  said  they,  '  what  is 
the  matter .'' '  and  they  all  crowded  around  to 
examine.  Soon  the  little  hands  started  again, 
slowly  at  first,  and  then  faster,  when  suddenly 
they  stopped.  Meanwhile  the  neighbors  had 
left  in  disgust,  well  knowing  that  there  was 
something  wrong  ;  and  while  the  clock-makers 
were  thinking  over  the  problem  the  little 
hands  kept  going  and  stopping  ;  only,  when 
they  did  move,  they  never  went  so  fast  as 
they  did  originally.  These  periods  were  so 
rhythmic  that  they  were  given  names.  They 
were  called  hard  times  or  panics,  according  to 
how  long  the  hands  kept  still.  *  Have  confi- 
dence, the  machine  is  all  right,  even  if  the 
little  hands  do  not  move  smoothly,'  said  those 
who  thought  it  a  success,  since  the  wheels 
which  they  had  contributed  always  moved  on 
in  spite  of  the  little  hands.     These  men  were 


Parable  of  the  Clock-makers        73 

the  capitalists  whom  panics  never  brought  to 
the  verge  of  starv'ation. 

"  All  the  rest,  however,  agreed  that  there 
was  something  wrong.  They  sat  down  to 
discuss  it,  with  the  clock  before  them,  and  one 
of  them  said,  '  It  needs  a  little  oil,'  and  there- 
uporthe  proceeded  to  oil  it.  He  was  the  man 
who  believed  in  charities.  But  the  hands 
stopped  just  the  same.  Another  said  oil  did 
no  good  since  there  was  something  radically- 
wrong.  He  was  the  man  who  put  justice 
ahead  of  charity.  Suddenly  one  in  the  circle 
jumped  up,  took  the  clock,  and  gave  it  a  vigor- 
ous shake.  At  this  all  was  chaos,  everybody 
was  afraid  the  machine  would  be  spoiled, 
although  all  admitted  it  did  n't  work  anyway  ; 
and  after  they  had  taken  it  from  this  man, 
they  asked  indignantly  what  he  meant  by 
such  a  thing  —  to  which  he  replied  that  he 
thought  a  shaking  would  do  it  good.  He 
was  the  destructionist,  who  threw  bombs. 

"  When  quiet  had  been  restored,  some  one 
on  examining  the  clock  said  that  he  saw  the 
trouble.  One  wheel  was  bent  out  of  shape, 
and  if  the  next  wheel  was  bent  to  correspond 
everything  would  be  settled.  He  was  the 
man  who,  seeing  the  abnormal  concentration 
of  capital,  suggested  the  abnormal  concentra- 


74  The  "Great  Awakening 

tion  of  labor  on  a  gigantic  scale  as  a  remedy ; 
he  believed  that  to  form  trade  unions  would 
settle  things.  The  wheel  was  bent,  and  still 
panics  came  at  regular  periods.  Another 
said  that  to  bend  the  second  wheel  to  conform 
to  the  first  was  to  prevent  the  second  wheel 
from  moving  freely.  He  was  the  man  who 
said  that  socialism,  or  lack  of  competition, 
would  prevent  the  free  growth  of  the  indi- 
vidual. A  third  said  that  if  they  did  away 
with  the  frame,  put  the  wheels  together  any 
way,  and  started  the  spring,  the  wheels  would 
naturally  take  the  best  position  suited  to 
them,  and  everything  would  work  smoothly. 
He  was  the  anarchist,  who  did  not  believe  in 
governments. 

"  '  No,'  said  a  fourth,  '  for  without  a  frame 
the  motion  could  not  be  regulated,  and  all  the 
wheels  would  be  scattered  to  the  four  winds.' 
He  was  a  believer  in  strong  governments. 
'  There  are  too  many  wheels, '  said  the  man 
who  believed  in  restricted  immigration.  '  They 
move  too  fast,'  said  he  who  foolishly  thought 
overproduction  was  the  evil. 

"  Finally  some  one  said  that  the  wheels 
were  not  placed  right :  there  were  some  large, 
strong  wheels  which  should  be  placed  so  that 
they  might  bear  more  of  the  strain.     He  was 


Parable  of  the  Clock-makers       75 

the  man  who  believed  that  landowners  should 
bear  the  greatest  burdens  in  taxation,  since 
by  their  monopoly  they  were  best  able  to 
stand  them.  One  man  even  suggested  that 
the  whole  trouble  with  the  clock  lay  in  the 
metal  of  which  it  was  composed.  He  was 
symbolic  of  those  who  claimed  that  the  error 
was  in  human  nature,  and  until  that  changed 
everything  would  have  to  remain  as  it  was. 

"  At  last  one  of  their  number,  who  had  up  to 
this  time  said  nothing,  got  up  and  examined 
the  clock  very  attentively ;  he  took  it  up, 
looked  carefully  at  the  hands  and  all  the 
wheels,  and  then  said,  '  Where  is  the  escape- 
ment (money)  ?'  He  was  told  it  was  hidden 
away  below  all  the  wheels,  in  a  corner.  It 
took  him  some  time  to  find  it,  the  affair  being 
so  complicated  that  it  was  necessary  to  use  a 
microscope  to  see  how  it  was  made,  for  there 
were  so  many  wheels  in  the  way  that  it  was 
very  confusing  to  tell  which  one  was  the 
escapement.  Finally  he  got  his  eye  on  it, 
and  then  he  set  the  clock  down,  and  it 
started  to  go.  He  watched  it  until  a  panic 
happened ;  then,  with  a  smile  of  satisfaction,  he 
said,  turning  to  his  friends,  *  Gentlemen,  the 
trouble  with  your  clock  is  that  the  motion  of 
the  escapement  wheel  (money)  is  clogged  and 


76  The  Great  Awakening 

hampered ;  givo  that  free  play,  and  your  little 
hands,  happiness,  will  continue  to  move  on 
smoothly  forever.'  He  was  the  man  who 
believed  that  money  should  be  issued  on  all 
commodities,  and  not  on  one. 

"  The  others  laughed  at  him,  but  he  said, 
'Very  well,  gentlemen,  you  will  see,  for  I 
shall  construct  a  clock  of  my  own,'  which  he 
proceeded  to  do,  when,  what  was  every  one's 
astonishment  to  find  that  he  was  right !  The 
little  hands  of  happiness  moved  along  beauti- 
fully and  never  stopped,  for  he  had  given  the 
escapement  (money)  free  play,  in  order  that  it 
should  follow  the  direction  of  the  spring  (labor). 

"  What  do  you  think  of  that .-' "  said  the 
professor. 

"  That  is  intensely  interesting,"  said  I.  "  I 
suppose  the  moral  of  it  all  is,  look  deeply 
before  you  judge." 

"Just  so,"  said  the  professor  ;  "  don't  study 
the  top  wheel,  but  look  below  for  the  escape- 
ment." 

Upon  reaching  home  the  professor  and  I 
went  into  the  library  and  lighted  our  cigars. 
I  knew  that  the  professor  would  soon  have 
something  to  say  on  economics,  so  I  led  the 
conversation  quietly  round  to  the  point  of 
values,  and  he  rose  to  the  bait  like  a  trout  and 
opened  on  me  at  once. 


Parable  of  the  Clock-makers       ']'] 

"  In  your  century  it  was  generally  believed 
that  the  cost  of  production  was  the  determin- 
ing factor  in  values.  Nothing  could  be 
farther  from  the  truth.  The  relation  of  these 
two  factors  was  but  little  understood  in  your 
time." 

"  I  am  afraid,  professor,  that  you  have  no 
use  for  our  century.  You  do  not  give  us 
credit  for  the  great  progress  we  made  in  the 
sciences  and  arts.  It  seems  to  me  that  the 
nineteenth  century  was  preeminently  one  of 
progress  and  advancement." 

"  One  of  progress,  when  in  the  midst  of 
wealth  there  was  the  greatest  poverty }  When 
whole  families  lived  in  a  single  room  and, 
toiling  all  day,  got  but  a  bare  living.-'  When 
some  by  birth  received  a  right  to  live  on  the 
labor  of  others  ?  If  this  is  progress,  what  is 
the  goal  toward  which  it  leads .''  An  age  of 
advancement  in  science  and  art }  Did  disease 
exist  the  less }  On  the  contrary,  it  multiplied. 
Did  persecution  exist  the  less .''  There  is  but 
a  difference  in  name  between  the  persecution 
of  the  priest,  the  king,  and  the  capitalist.  In 
the  midst  of  Christianity,  religious  persecution 
flourished  simply  because  the  surrounding 
nations  could  not  come  to  an  agreement  as  to 
how  the  offending  nation  should  be  divided 


78  The  Great  Awakening 

between  them,  and  while  they  were  discussing 
this  question  the  slaughtering  kept  on.  An 
age  of  advancement  ?  You  must  be  crazy. 
If  my  criticism  hurts  you,  I  will  desist,  but  do 
not  blind  yourself  to  facts. 

"  Let  us  now  look  at  the  question  of  value 
with  a  view  of  finding  out,  not  who  is  right, 
but  what  is  right.  I  will  first  define  some 
words  which  we  shall  have  occasion  to  use 
frequently  in  the  future.  They  are  worth, 
labor  value,  and  market  value.  The  worth 
of  a  commodity  is  its  power  of  satisfying 
human  desires ;  the  labor  value  of  a  commodity 
is  the  amount  of  labor  necessary  to  produce  it ; 
and  the  market  value  is  the  ratio  of  exchange 
between  a  commodity  and  the  dollar. 

"Worth  is  not  measurable  and  fluctuates 
only  as,  by  the  changing  of  the  attributes  of 
the  commodity,  it  satisfies  more  or  less  the 
demands  of  human  beings.  Thus  if  I,  by 
careful  preservation,  keep  a  hat  for  a  year  so 
that  it  is  in  just  as  good  condition  at  the  end 
as  it  was  at  the  beginning  of  the  year,  the 
worth  has  not  changed,  but  the  market  value 
may  fluctuate,  for  this  is  a  ratio  and  may 
be  changed  by  altering  either  numerator  or 
denominator.  Thus  my  hat  is  worth  as  much 
at  the  end  of  the  year,  but  if  more  hats  have 


Parable  of  the  Clock-makers       79 

been  made  than  there  have  been  dollars  issued, 
it  will  purchase  fewer  dollars ;  therefore  its 
market  value  has  fallen. 

"  Now  for  a  simple  illustration  of  the  rela- 
tion of  worth  and  market  value  to  the  cost  of 
production.  Let  us  consider  a  horse,  a  cart, 
and  a  man.  The  horse  we  will  call  worth  ; 
the  resistance  offered  by  the  cart  we  will 
term  the  cost  of  production.  As  the  brakes 
are  put  on,  the  cost  of  production  increases, 
and  vice  versa.  The  speed  of  the  man  (who 
represents  the  capitalist)  in  the  cart  we  will 
term  the  profits  of  capital  —  the  greater  the 
speed,  the  more  profits.  Now  let  the  man 
get  in  the  cart,  put  on  the  brakes,  and  try  to 
start.  If  the  horse  is  strong  the  cart  will 
move ;  that  is,  with  a  high  cost  of  production 
there  will  be  profit  if  there  is  worth.  Worth 
is  the  determining  factor.  If  the  brakes  are 
taken  off  a  little  the  speed  will  be  increased, 
but  this  does  not  mean  that  the  strength  of 
the  horse  has  been  increased ;  that  has  not 
changed  in  any  way.  We  see,  therefore,  that 
the  primary  effect  of  the  cost  of  production 
is  one  acting  only  on  profits.  Worth  must 
exist  before  either  of  the  other  factors.  A 
cart  might  be  made  with  pneumatic-tired 
wheels  and  ball  bearings  offering  but    little 


8o  The  Great  Awakening 

resistance  {thus  representing  an  extremely  low 
cost  of  production),  yet  there  would  be  no 
speed  (profit)  at  all  if  it  were  not  for  the 
horse.  Do  you  understand  the  illustration  ? 
If  you  do,  you  will  see  that,  given  worth,  the 
cost  of  production  affects  profits  and  not 
market  value,  for  with  a  decreasing  cost  of 
production  you  must  have  an  increasing  profit. 
"  Now  the  effect  of  this  is  to  determine 
more  capital  into  this  particular  industry,  and 
this  causes  an  increase  in  the  supply  of  the 
particular  commodity  produced  ;  but  if  there 
could  be  a  proportional  increase  in  the  amount 
of  circulating  medium,  with  an  increased  sup- 
ply of  goods  would  come  an  increased  effect- 
ive demand  for  them,  so  that  as  long  as  worth 
remained  constant  —  that  is,  as  long  as  the 
goods  themselves  did  not  deteriorate  or  wear 
out  —  market  value  would  remain  constant. 
And  indeed,  it  may  be  stated  as  an  economic 
truth  that  the  price  of  anything  should  never 
fall  because  of  an  increased  production  of 
that  thing,  but  only  upon  its  deterioration. 
Market  value  and  worth  should  fluctuate  in 
concert,  and  the  only  way  to  bring  this  about 
is  to  increase  legal  tender  money  in  the  same 
proportion  as  wealth  increases.  Labor  value, 
however,  is  entirely  independent  of  either  of 


Parable  of  the  Clock-makers       8i 

the  other  two  terms,  and  although  not  meas- 
urable, fluctuations  in  it  may  be  perceived. 
For  instance,  if  with  improved  machines  I  can, 
with  the  same  amount  of  labor,  produce  two 
hats  where  before  only  one  was  produced,  the 
labor  value  of  the  hats  has  fallen  ;  and  this  is 
true  whether  I  work  the  same  time  and  pro- 
duce two  hats,  or  only  half  the  time  and  pro- 
duce one  hat ;  but  in  neither  case  has  worth 
changed,  provided,  of  course,  the  hats  are 
just  as  good  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other." 

"  But,  professor,  with  this  improved  ma- 
chinery and  consequent  fall  of  labor  value ; 
would  there  not  come  a  fall  of  market  value  ? 
And  if  so,  is  it  not  just  to  say  that  market 
value  must  fluctuate  with  labor  value  and  not 
with  worth  ? " 

"  Not  at  all.  Market  value  depends  upon 
the  number  of  commodities  produced  and  of- 
fered for  sale,  divided  by  the  number  of  dol- 
lars offered  to  purchase,  and  this  is  entirely 
independent  of  labor  value  ;  for  if,  as  in  your 
day,  a  trust  controls  industry,  it  can,  by  intro- 
ducing new  machinery,  reduce  the  labor  value 
of  its  commodity,  while  at  the  same  time  con- 
trolling the  amount  produced,  it  can  keep  the 
market  value  constant.  This  is  just  why 
trusts  formed.     By  keeping  market  value  con- 


82  The  Great  Awakening 

stant  and  reducing  labor  value,  profits  may  be 
increased,  provided,  as  before  stated,  worth  is 
constant ;  but  this  state  of  affairs  always 
means  misery  to  the  masses,  for  any  check 
to  the  production  of  wealth  diminishes  the 
amount  which  may  be  consumed,  and  this 
means  unhappiness  under  any  distribution. 
On  the  other  hand,  a  vast  increase  in  the 
number  of  laborers  means  more  commodities 
produced,  and  if  this  is  not  met  b}'  an  in- 
creased number  of  dollars,  market  value  will 
fall,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  takes  just  as 
much  labor  to  produce  the  commodity  as  it 
formerly  did  —  that  is,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  labor  value  has  not  fallen  ;  for  we  are 
assuming  that  machinery  has  not  been  intro- 
duced, but  only  that  the  number  of  laborers 
has  been  increased.  So  we  see  that  labor 
value  may  fall  while  market  value  remains 
constant,  and  market  value  may  fall  while 
labor  value  remains  constant  ;  and  the  correct 
deduction  is  that  the  two  are  entirely  inde- 
pendent of  each  other.  The  cause  of  this 
fall  of  market  values,  which  is  always  bad,  is, 
as  you  can  now  see,  the  limitation  of  the  in- 
crease of  money,  not  decreased  cost  of  pro- 
duction, not  decreased  labor  value.  Do  not 
forget  this." 


Parable  of  the  Clock-makers       83 

"  But,  professor,  let  us  consider  the  oppo- 
site. If  market  value  is  rising,  what  differ- 
ence will  that  make  to  the  laborer,  even  sup- 
posing his  wages  will  be  higher  ?  If  his  dol- 
lars come  easier,  will  it  not  cost  him  more  of 
them  to  live  ?     Where  is  the  gain  ?  " 

"  Well,  provided  the  rise  of  market  values 
is  caused  by  an  increase  of  legal  tender  money 
and  not  by  a  decrease  of  wealth,  there  is  a 
vast  difference  to  him.  Let  me  ilhistrate. 
Suppose  you  are  a  capitalist  with  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  which  you  are  willing  to  in- 
vest in  a  business  paying  six  per  cent,  a  year, 
and  you  find  the  opportunity  and  do  invest. 
Now  let  us  see  what  would  result.  Of  the 
total  amount  of  cash  received  during  the 
year,  there  must  be  paid  you  $6,000  regularly, 
or  else  you  will  withdraw  your  capital.  Now 
let  us  suppose  that  the  total  receipts  for  one 
year  are  $50,000.  Your  $6,000  represents 
twelve  per  cent,  of  the  total  receipts,  and  the 
remainder,  we  will  say,  is  consumed  in  the 
buying  of  stock,  minor  expenses,  and  the 
wages  of  labor.  For  the  sake  of  argument, 
let  us  say  $22,000  is  spent  in  the  former  and 
$22,000  in  wages.  Now  let  us  assume  the 
quantity  of  money  in  circulation  is  cut  in  two, 
thus    cutting   prices    in    halves,   and  making 


84  The  Great  Awakening 

your  receipts  $25,000.  You  may  now  say, 
that  as  the  cost  of  living  is  halved,  it  will  be 
no  hardship  to  halve  wages.  Suppose,  then, 
we  give  $1 1,000  as  wages  and  spend  $1 1,000 
on  raw  material,  getting  thereby  just  as 
much  as  we  could  with  $22,000  when  prices 
were  double.  But  1 1  -|-  1 1  =  22,  which  leaves 
only  $3,000  as  interest,  which  you,  as  a  capi- 
talist, would  never  submit  to,  for  that  would 
be  but  three  per  cent.  What,  then,  is  the  alter- 
native, if  $6,000  must  be  paid  as  interest  and 
$11,000  to  purchase  new  stock.'*  Why,  only 
$8,000  can  be  paid  to  laborers,  so  you  see  that 
while  there  has  been  a  drop  of  fifty  per  cent,  in 
the  cost  of  living,  there  has  been  a  drop  of  sixty- 
three  per  cent,  in  wages  ;  and  remember  that 
it  must  always  happen  that  with  any  drop  in 
prices,  either  interest  must  drop  proportion- 
ally or  wages  must  drop  to  a  greater  extent. 
Dividends  are  always  paid  at  the  expense  of 
labor.  Bear  in  mind  that  by  wages  I  do  not 
mean  the  average  pay  of  laborers,  but  the 
lump  sum  of  the  receipts  which  is  expended 
in  wages.  It  will  often  happen  that  because 
of  new  machinery  the  same  volume  of  busi- 
ness may  be  conducted  with  fewer  hands,  in 
which  case  the  average  wages  may  be  higher  ; 
but  this  only  means  men  out  of  work  :    so 


Parable  of  the  Clock-makers       85 

that  whenever  the  sum  set  apart  for  wages 
decreases,  either  the  average  wage  drops  pro- 
portionally or  the  number  of  employees  is 
decreased,  thereby  keeping  the  pay  of  some 
the  same,  but  throwing  other  men  out  of 
work.  Now  it  is  well  known  that  any  board 
of  directors  will  cut  expenses  in  any  way 
rather  than  diminish  the  amount  of  dividend. 

"  To  go  back  —  we  also  see  that  if  $6,000 
is  paid  upon  an  earning  of  $25,000,  the  pro- 
portion of  the  total  wealth  produced,  which 
goes  to  the  non-producer,  i.e.,  the  capitalist, 
is  now  twenty-four  per  cent,  where  before  it 
was  twelve  per  cent.,  and  now  the  laborers 
only  get  thirty-two  per  cent,  where  before 
they  got  forty-four  per  cent. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  quantity  of 
money  was  doubled,  the  receipts  would  be 
$100,000,  cost  of  stock  $44,000,  interest 
$6,000,  which  v/ould  leave  $50,000  for  wages  ; 
so  that,  whereas  cost  of  living  has  jumped  up 
in  this  case  one  hundred  per  cent.,  wages 
have  jumped  up  one  hundred  and  twenty-two 
per  cent.  ;  so  that  it  must  be  evident  that 
rising  prices,  caused  by  increased  issue  of 
money,  would  make  considerable  difference  to 
the  laborer. 

"  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  owners  would 


86  The  Great  Awakening 

pay  this  increase  unless  they  were  forced  to, 
which  would  be  the  case,  however,  in  a  short 
time,  and  would  be  brought  about  by  the  in- 
creased demand  for  labor  caused  by  the  in- 
creased issue  of  money  ;  but  I  do  mean  to 
say  that  owners  in  your  day  would  cut  down 
everything  rather  than  dividends,  during  as 
long  a  period  as  they  could  possibly  do  so, 
and  by  thus  keeping  interest  practically  a 
constant  quantity  —  it  being  always  a  percent- 
age on  capital  stock  —  they  forced  a  greater 
and  greater  percentage  of  the  total  wealth 
produced  away  from  the  producers  into  the 
hands  of  those  who  live  by  lending,  thus  lead- 
ing to  the  concentration  of  power  with  its 
ever-present  abuses." 

"  But,  professor,  I  am  still  somewhat  in  the 
dark  with  regard  to  values.  To  take  an  ex- 
ample. If  you  can  raise  fifty  bushels  of 
wheat  from  a  plot  of  ground  where  before, 
with  cruder  instruments  and  methods,  you 
could  only  raise  one  bushel,  does  n't  that  mean 
that  the  value  of  wheat  is  decreased .-'  " 

"  You  are  confounding  labor  value  with 
market  value.  The  labor  value  of  that  wheat 
is  less,  for  it  takes  less  labor  to  produce  it ; 
but  market  value  should  not  be  decreased,  for 
the  worth  of  the  wheat  has   not   decreased. 


Parable  of  the  Clock-makers        87 

When  with  improvements  we  can  take  fifty 
bushels  where  before  we  had  only  taken  one, 
does    that  mean    that  each    bushel   will    not 
make  as  many  pounds  of  flour,  as  many  loaves 
of  bread  —  will  not  satisfy  as  many  hungry 
mouths  ?      Of   course    it    does   not.     Worth 
depends  on  total  demand,  which  in  its  turn 
depends  upon  the  characteristics  of  the  com- 
modity to    satisfy  human   desires,  and  total 
supply.     Market  value  depends  on  effective 
or  money  demand  and  total  supply  :  there  is 
quite   a   difference.     The   total    demand   for 
anything  having  worth,  for  anything  which  sat- 
isfies the  needs  of  body  or  mind,  is  unlimited. 
That  is  a  fact  that  the  people  of  your  time 
could    not    see,    and    yet    they   had    sayings 
which    showed    they  had    some    comprehen- 
sion of  it,  as,  for  instance  :  '  A  man's  tastes 
increase  with  his  income,'   '  Give  him  an  inch 
and  he'll  take  an    ell,'    'Man's    desires    are 
never  satisfied,'  'The  more  he  gets,  the  more 
he  wants.'      A  sane  man  will  not  refuse   a 
good  meal  for  a  crust  of  mouldy  bread,  and  if 
he  eats  the  latter  you  may  be  pretty  sure  it  is 
not  because  he  wants  to,  but  because  he  has 
to ;  his  actual  demand  is  for  the  good  meal, 
his  effective  demand  for  the  crust  of  bread  — 
or,   in   plain   words,   he   has  n't    any  money. 


88  The  Great  Awakening 

Now  you  can  see  at  once  that  falHng  prices 
show  that  there  are  not  enough  units  of  cir- 
culating medium  in  existence  ;  but  since  what 
there  is  is  all  there  is,  and  since  what  there 
is  has  got  to  take  care  of  existing  trade,  it 
follows  that,  as  the  number  of  units  cannot 
increase,  the  purchasing  power  of  each  unit 
must.  That  is  to  say,  each  unit  must  handle 
a  greater  amount  of  trade  to  the  great  advan- 
tage of  the  man  who  owns  the  units. 

"  This  question  of  money  is  of  vast  impor- 
tance and  is  deeper  than  either  free  trade  or 
single  tax.  To  treat  land  as  private  property 
is  morally  wrong,  but  it  is  not  such  an  evil  as 
to  hmit  the  increase  of  money,  for  if  it  were 
not  for  the  latter,  land  market  values  would 
not  exist.  By  land  market  values,  or  economic 
rent,  is  meant  that  market  value  which  is 
attached  to  land  by  virtue  of  its  location.  It 
has  nothing  to  do  with  the  chemical  composi- 
tion of  the  earth,  but  comes  simply  from  the 
situation  relative  to  centres  of  business ;  and 
in  order  to  accept  the  natural  existence  of 
such  market  value,  we  must  believe  that 
concentration  is  the  natural  order  of  things. 
Now,  we  know  that  people  like  to  get  away  as 
much  as  possible  from  the  city,  that  their 
homes  are  in  suburbs ;  that  concentration  leads 


Parable  of  the  Clock-makers       89 

to  low  morals  and  filth,  that  people  need  pure 
air,  sufficient  light ;  that  the  noise  and  jar  of 
the  city  lead  to  many  nervous  diseases;  that 
it  is  not  natural  for  human  beings  to  crowd 
themselves  into  buildings  twelve  and  fifteen 
stories  high.  All  this  we  know,  and  it  shows 
that  there  must  be  some  artificial  force  at 
work  which  leads  men  to  abandon  farms 
and  crowd  into  cities.  Let  us  see  what 
in  the  past  has  caused  men  to  concen- 
trate in  tribes.  First,  it  was  for  protec- 
tion :  in  union  there  is  strength ;  surely 
that  is  not  the  reason  which  accounts  for  the 
concentration  in  the  nineteenth  century. 
Then  crude  means  of  transportation  caused 
men  to  live  near  each  other  for  the  purpose  of 
exchanging  thoughts;  surely  that  is  not  the 
reason  of  your  century  —  a  century  noted  for 
its  telegraph,  telephone,  efficient  postal  service, 
and  quick  methods  of  all  kinds  of  transpor- 
tation. What  is  the  reason  ?  The  limitation 
of  the  issue  of  money  is  the  reason.  The 
giving  to  one  commodity,  gold,  the  exclusive 
right  of  acting  as  the  circulating  medium  and 
standard  of  value  is  the  cause  of  this  concen- 
tration, this  degradation  in  the  midst  of  wealth. 
Could  a  man  capitalize  any  form  of  wealth, 
he  would  not   crowd  to  the  city.     Could   a 


90  The  Great  Awakening 

man  by  producing  wealth  be  assured  of  that 
quantity  of  money  which  is  equivalent  to  the 
amount  of  wealth  produced,  he  would  not 
crowd  to  the  city ;  but  since  you  make  money 
one  commodity,  gold,  you  give  to  the  holders 
of  and  dealers  in  that  commodity  a  privilege 
excluded  from  other  men  very  similar  to  the 
privilege  given  to  landowners ;  for  if  land 
is  necessary  to  our  existence,  so  is  money ; 
and  since  any  commodity  must  be  changed  to 
money  before  it  is  changed  back  to  another 
commodity,  it  is  evident  that,  to  make  the 
first  change  in  your  century,  it  was  necessary 
to  go  where  the  money  was.  This  concen- 
trated the  population  in  centres  which  in 
your  day  were  called  just  what  they  were, 
i.e.,  moneyed  centres.  Now,  with  us  it  is 
only  necessary  that  a  man  shall  produce 
wealth  to  receive  from  the  national  govern- 
ment a  certificate  of  such  labor  performed. 
With  us  there  is  no  competition  in  the  sense 
you  understood  it,  for  such  competition  means 
essentially  a  fight  to  turn  your  commodity 
into  money  before  the  other  man  can ;  there- 
fore you  had  to  be  near  the  other  man  in 
order  to  keep  an  eye  on  his  movements. 
This  competition  on  the  face  of  it  showed  that 
there    was    not    enough    of    the    circulating 


Parable  of  the  Clock- makers        91 

medium  in  existence  to  handle  the  trade  in 
existence.  I  wonder  your  thinkers  could 
not  see  it. 

"Although  a  greater  evil  in  many  ways, 
the  limitation  of  the  issue  of  money  is  similar 
to  private  property  in  land.  Both  land  and 
money  give  to  the  owner  increased  value 
as  time  goes  on,  regardless  of  whether  he  labors 
or  not.  An  owner  of  land  may  absent  himself 
from  his  property  and  perform  no  work,  yet 
the  market  value  is  constantly  increasing;  the 
owner  of  a  dollar  in  gold  may  stow  it  away 
in  a  safety  deposit  vault,  absent  himself  and 
perform  no  work,  and  yet  the  market  value  of 
that  gold  is  constantly  increasing.  It  will 
buy  more  commodities  than  it  formerly  did. 
The  demand  for  a  circulating  medium  in- 
creases as  the  total  number  of  commodities 
increases  ;  but  under  your  system  the  medium 
itself  could  never  increase  in  amount  in  like 
proportion,  since  it  was  only  one  commodity ; 
therefore  it  increased  in  value.  This  was 
brought  about  by  the  use  of  the  so-called 
honest  dollar,  and  was  the  cause  of  more 
misery  and  vice  than  any  system  of  tyranny 
which  has  ever  been  invented.  Rome  at  her 
worst  never  caused  such  misery.  True  it 
is  that  by  her  system  of  taxation  she  sucked 


92  The  Great  Awakening 

the  Mediterranean  provinces  dry  to  gratify 
the  sensuous  and  vicious  tastes  of  a  few ;  but 
what  is  that  compared  to  the  world-wide  mis- 
ery caused  by  the  system  in  existence  in  the 
nineteenth  and  twentieth  centuries,  which, 
with  its  head  at  London,  spread  its  grasping 
tentacles  to  the  farthest  ends  of  the  earth  ? 

"  Oh,  well,  we  must  be  charitable,  we  must 
not  expect  too  much  from  such  uncivilized 
and  ignorant  people  as  lived  in  your  day ;  and 
we  must  remember  that  you  were  just  at  that 
time  passing  through  the  third  tyranny  of 
mankind  —  that  of  the  capitalist.  When  we 
look  at  it  from  that  point  of  view,  we  as  philoso- 
phers feel  a  sorrow  and  a  sympathy  for  the 
masses  and  thank  heaven  that  we  were  born 
in  a  civilized  age." 

At  this  point  in  the  conversation  the 
professor  said :  "  Well,  I  guess  this  is  enough 
for  to-night,  it  is  time  to  retire.  To-morrow 
I  will  show  you  my  horseless  carriages  and 
give  you  a  ride  in  a  flying  machine." 

I  bade  him  good-night  and  went  up  to  my 
room,  where  I  was  soon  asleep. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


SOME    NEW    INVENTIONS. 


After  breakfast  the  next  morning  the  pro- 
fessor took  me  out  to  the  barn  to  show  me  his 
apphances  for  heating  and  Hghting  his  house, 
and  also  his  carriages.  His  generator  was 
pecuHar  in  that  it  turned  the  energy  existing 
in  gas  into  electric  energy  direct.  There  was 
standing  on  a  platform  a  jacketed  cylinder 
about  three  feet  high  and  a  foot  and  a  half  in 
diameter.  At  one  side  of  that  was  a  door, 
near  the  bottom,  which  the  professor  opened 
for  me  so  that  I  could  see  the  gas  jets  strik- 
ing the  coils  of  wire  ;  and  he  explained  that 
the  wire  was  composed  of  two  metals  of  very 
great  difference  in  polarity,  and  that  these 
metals  were  so  welded  that,  whereas  in  the 
thermopile  of  the  nineteenth  century  only 
about  five  per  cent,  was  obtained,  in  this  al- 
most ninety  per  cent,  of  the  heat  energy  was 
transformed.  I  realized  that  here  at  last  was 
the  solution  of  the  great  problem  of  how  to 

93 


94  The  Great  Awakening 

generate  electric  energy  direct  from  coal ;  and 
while  standing  before  this  simple  little  boiler 
my  thoughts  went  back  to  my  own  times, 
when  our  greatest  inventors  were  toiling  night 
and  day  over  this  problem,  in  many  cases 
simply  from  their  love  of  science  ;  and  I  re- 
called the  doings  of  certain  charlatans  who 
claimed  everything,  had  nothing,  but  suc- 
ceeded in  fooling  the  ignorant. 

"  This  must  make  a  great  difference  in  the 
ease  and  comfort  of  living,  professor,"  said  I. 

"  You  can  hardly  realize  the  difference. 
Why,  housework  for  the  women  is  nothing 
compared  to  what  it  was  in  your  time,  as  all 
the  disagreeable  work  is  done  by  electricity. 
The  washing,  sweeping,  mixing  of  food,  drying 
of  dishes,  cooking,  heating,  cooling  —  every- 
thing is  performed  by  our  servant  that  you 
see  before  you  ;  and  when  you  remember  that 
most  of  the  dirt  existed  because  you  lived  in 
cities  where  thousands  of  boilers  poured  their 
volumes  of  smoke  hourly  into  the  air,  where 
horses  powdered  the  streets  into  the  finest 
dust,  where  the  congested  travelling  spread 
that  dust  everywhere  ;  when  you  come  to 
realize  that  the  primary  causes  of  dirt  and 
filth,  with  the  coexisting  disease,  were  con- 
centration and  the  use  of  coal,  you  are  forced 


New  Inventions  95 

to  ask  yourself  whether  there  is  any  compar- 
ison between  your  time  and  to-day,  when  we 
have  sense  enough  to  have  a  system  which 
does  not  necessitate  crowding,  and  when  our 
inventors  have  given  us  a  cheap  and  clean 
method  of  heating  our  houses  and  doing  all 
our  work." 

"  But,  professor,  city  people  are  in  general 
in  better  healtn  than  country  people." 

"  Which  only  proves  the  adage,  '  Necessity 
is  the  mother  of  invention.'  As  fast  as  dis- 
ease springs  up,  a  doctor  springs  up  to  cure 
it.  To  get  a  living  a  doctor  must  be  where 
there  is  disease,  therefore  you  find  him  in  the 
city.  I  do  not  think  you  can  truly  say  that 
the  civilization  of  your  times  had  blotted  out 
disease ;  rather  the  opposite  was  true,  it  had 
increased  the  number  of  diseases,  but  it  had 
also,  directly  from  this  fact,  been  the  cause  of 
the  existence  of  that  large  body  of  specialists, 
the  medical  profession.  This  was  only  an- 
other example  of  the  waste  which  went  on  in 
your  times,  since  if  it  had  n't  been  for  concen- 
tration, a  great  many  diseases  would  not  have 
existed,  and,  therefore,  a  large  body  of  men 
could  have  turned  their  attention  to  other  and 
more  profitable  things  ;  but  people's  thoughts 
seemed  to  be  upside  down  then,  as  you  would 


96  The  Great  Awakening 

hear  that  such  and  such  a  disaster  was  a  good 
thing,  since  it  meant  work  for  men.  People 
were  ahvays  talking  about  wanting  work  or 
wanting  to  give  men  work  ;  they  never  seemed 
capable  of  understanding  that  work  was  only 
a  means  to  an  end ;  that  what  men  wanted 
was  to  satisfy  their  desires,  or,  in  other  words, 
to  be  happy.  But  we  are  diverging.  Let  me 
show  you  the  arrangement  of  the  gas." 

"  I  should  think,  professor,  it  would  be 
cheaper  to  generate  electricity  at  the  mines 
and  wire  direct  from  there." 

"  In  some  cases,  where  the  distance  is  not 
too  great,  that  method  is  used,  but  here  it  is 
found  cheaper  to  pipe  for  gas  and  use  individ- 
ual generators.  Come  this  way  and  see  the 
carriages." 

The  professor  then  took  me  into  another 
room  which  was  on  the  ground  floor  and  had 
large  folding  doors.  It  was  much  like  our 
carriage  houses.  Here  there  were  four  auto- 
mobiles of  different  capacities,  each  having  a 
small  electric  generator  burning  kerosene  ;  and 
the  professor  told  me  that  on  average  level 
roads  these  carriages  —  which  differed  from 
any  I  had  been  familiar  with  in  that  the 
frame  of  each  was  built  of  thin  steel  tubing 
after  the  fashion  of  our  bicycles,  which  made 


New  Inventions  97 

a  very  light  but  strong  construction  —  could 
attain  easily  a  speed  of  twenty  miles  an  hour. 
At  the  right  of  the  driver  were  the  guiding 
levers,  and  the  professor  assured  me  that  at 
all  times  the  machine  was  under  perfect  con- 
trol. 

We  left  the  carriage  house,  and  walking 
back,  entered  the  kitchen ;  and  the  professor 
took  great  interest  in  showing  me  all  the 
cooking  appliances.  There  was  a  large  switch 
board  at  one  side,  and  on  a  table  under  it  was 
an  electric  oven,  which  was  nothing  more  nor 
less  than  a  large  magnesium,  air-tight  box,  in 
the  centre  of  which  was  a  coil  of  wire.  The 
food  was  put  in  the  box,  the  door  was  shut,  a 
current  of  electricity  was  turned  on,  and  the 
cooking  began.  One  very  interesting  feature 
of  this  was  that  the  door  of  the  box  was  glass, 
through  which,  by  the  aid  of  an  electric  light 
in  the  oven,  the  process  could  be  watched ; 
and  there  was  also  a  thermometer  inside,  so 
that  the  temperature  could  be  kept  constant, 
and  that  simply  by  the  turn  of  the  .switch  ;  no 
coal,  no  ashes,  no  drafts.  The  machine  for 
washing  dishes  stood  near  the  sink,  while  the 
drying  box  was  nothing  but  another  oven, 
having  an  outlet  for  steam.  Surely  here  was 
perfection  in  the  culinary  department. 


98  The  Great  Awakening 

"And  your  neighbors  —  can  they  afford 
these  things? " 

"Of  course,  why  not?" 

"Well,  if  everybody  is  as  well  off  as  this, 
the  wealth  per  capita  must  be  something 
tremendous." 

"Or  else  the  wealth  per  capita  in  your 
time  must  have  been  beggarly  —  for  it  's  a 
poor  rule  that  does  n't  work  both  ways,  and  in 
this  case  the  last  way  is  the  true  way :  it  was 
beggarly.  How  could  it  be  otherwise  with 
the  barbarous  scheme  of  finance  current ;  for 
just  think  a  minute !  The  controllers  of  the 
circulating  medium  were  the  controllers  of 
industry,  and  determined  it  in  any  direction; 
and  since  the  capitalists  cared  nothing  for 
wealth  per  capita,  but  only  for  the  satisfaction 
of  their  silly  whims,  we  see  industry  deter- 
mined not  in  those  directions  for  the  general 
good,  nor  for  the  greatest  production  of  the 
permanent  forms  of  wealth,  but  in  those 
directions  where  the  benefit  accrued  only  to 
some  special  class.  The  industries  for  the 
manufacture  of  jewelry,  trinkets,  novelties, 
energy  spent  in  producing  fast  horses,  fast 
racing  yachts,  and  all  such  things,  are 
examples  of  them.  When  a  man  spent 
^50,000  on  a  private  racing  yacht,  the  nine- 


New  Inventions  99 

teenth-centiiry  people  did  not  criticise,  they 
said  it  was  a  good  thing,  as  it  gave  men  work  ; 
but  they  did  n't  realize  that  there  were 
thousands  of  other  ways  in  which  that  money 
could  be  used  where  it  would  not  only  give 
men  work,  but  would  create  something  of 
real  and  lasting  worth." 

"But  do  you  think  it  is  wrong  to  indulge 
oneself  in  luxuries,  professor?" 

"Yes,  when  some  are  without  necessities. 
But  I  am  criticising  the  system  now,  and  I  do 
say  emphatically  that  any  system  of  civilization 
wherein  the  inequality  of  distribution  is  as 
great  as  it  was  in  your  times  is  radically  and 
wholly  wrong." 

We  had  walked  into  the  library  and  sat 
down,  and  the  professor,  continuing,  said : 
"  This  room  has  a  charm  for  me.  I  invariably 
choose  it  for  work  of  any  kind,  although,  as 
you  know,  my  study  is  upstairs;  but  still 
I  can  enjoy  myself  more  here  than  in  any 
other  room,  and  it  is  here  I  spend  many  hours 
of  meditation.  Many  is  the  time,  coming 
home  late  from  the  theatre,  that  I  doff  boots 
for  slippers,  coat  for  gown ;  and,  drawing  my 
chair  close  to  the  roaring  fire,  with  lights  dim 
and  pipe  in  hand,  my  mind  wanders  back  to 
the  dark  ages  of  the  past ;  and,  I  must  admit. 


lOO  The  Great  Awakening 

with  the  saddest  of  feelings  I  trace  the 
progress  of  man  towards  enlightenment  from 
century  to  century. 

"Seated  here  by  myself,  undisturbed  by 
any  sound  save  the  gentle  crackling  of  the 
burning  embers,  I  see  man  first  as  the  savage, 
rude  in  all  his  manners,  ignorant  in  all  his  acts. 
Those  were  the  days  when  his  brain  was 
weak,  when  everything  unknown  was  a  god, 
when  nature  was  the  master,  man  the  slave. 
As  the  embers  fall  and  the  fire  brightens,  I 
see  man  again.  Now  he  appears  to  me 
different,  he  has  evolved  a  step.  I  see  him 
tilling  the  ground.  He  recognizes  in  his 
fellow  man  a  comrade,  he  has  some  conception 
of  his  duty  to  man  ;  he  is  less  ignorant,  he 
has  fewer  gods,  simply  because  he  can 
explain  more  things  naturally.  Another 
period  passes,  and  the  creed  religion  is  born. 
He  passes  from  many  gods  to  one.  Surely 
this  is  evolution,  this  is  a  change  for  the 
better.  But  man  is  still  the  slave,  nature  the 
master. 

"It  is  not  until  the  western  civilization 
appears  that  man's  condition  assumes  a  new 
aspect.  The  Christian  religion  was,  I  think,  a 
tremendous  force  in  forming  that  civilization. 
When  we  look  at  that  religion  from  a  historic 


New  Inventions 


lOI 


point  of  view,  we  realize  the  tremendous 
power  it  exerted.  Its  teachings,  acting  on 
the  Aryan  race,  had  a  beneficial  effect ;  but 
it  was  not  long  before  a  change  came.  The 
fire  burns  brighter,  and  I  see  man  again.  He 
is  now  less  the  slave  of  nature,  but  alas! 
more  the  slave  of  his  fellow  men. 

"Let  the  creed  religionist  of  your  time 
think  of  the  Dark  Ages,  think  of  the  tyranny 
of  priest  over  layman  ;  is  he  so  blind  as  not 
to  see  the  change  that  has  taken  place.? 
What  would  Christ  have  said  if  he  had  known 
the  torture,  the  suffering  inflicted  in  his 
name  ? 

"  I  was  saying  that  man  was  less  the  slave 
of  nature,  more  the  slave  of  man.  This  was 
caused  by  the  distorted  views  on  religion, 
which  gave  into  the  keeping  of  a  few  priests 
the  keys  to  the  gate  of  heaven.  This  would 
be  laughable  if  it  were  not  the  cause  of  the 
first  great  enslavement  of  the  human  race. 
But  it  is  sad.  Sad  to  think  of  are  the  days 
when  creed  religion  reigned ;  sad  to  think  of 
the  days  when  humanity  was  ruled  by  an 
oligarchy  of  priests.  But  there  came  a  time 
when  humanity  rebelled.  No  longer  did  the 
priest  govern  human  actions.  The  history  of 
our  race  is  the  history  of  the  martyrdom  of 


I02  The  Great  Awakening 

man  ;  the  history  of  his  fight,  first  with  na- 
ture, then  with  his  fellow  men.  The  power 
of  the  priest  waned,  the  power  of  the  king 
took  its  place. 

"  Based  on  divine  right,  a  few  members  of 
the  human  family  succeeded  in  enslaving  the 
rest  for  centuries.  Their  monopoly  of  the 
power  to  make  laws  was  handed  down  from 
father  to  son,  and  perpetuated,  as  it  seemed, 
forever.  But  no,  not  forever,  for  humanity 
awoke  again,  destroyed  its  persecutors,  and 
reserved  for  itself  the  right  of  making  laws, 
entrusting  this  monopoly  to  no  one.  And 
yet  again  was  humanity  enslaved.  As  trade 
increased,  a  circulating  medium  became  neces- 
sary, and  in  its  ignorance  humanity  accepted 
for  this  medium  one  commodity  of  which  the 
quantity  was  limited,  namely,  gold.  Again, 
based  on  the  rights  of  property,  did  the  few 
enslave  the  many.  Were  they  priests  ?  Were 
they  kings .-'  No,  none  of  these  were  the 
masters.  They  neither  governed  religion  nor 
did  they  by  themselves  make  laws.  How, 
then,  did  they  enslave  ?  Simply  by  controlling 
the  circulating  medium.  The  masters  were 
given  a  new  name.  Capitalists  they  were 
called.  They  pressed  on  humanity  the  ab- 
surdity that  it  was  they  who  furnished  the 


New  Inventions  103 

capital  which  allowed  labor  to  work.  It  was 
the  old,  old  story.  In  days  gone  by  the 
priests  had  said,  '  Your  only  hope  of  salvation 
lies  in  our  hands.'  Humanity  finally  denied 
this  and  took  its  own  salvation  to  itself. 
Kings  said,  '  The  only  way  to  get  just  laws  is 
to  let  us  make  them ';  humanity  rebelled  and 
made  its  own  laws.  Capitalists  said,  '  The 
only  way  of  exchanging  the  products  of  your 
labor  for  those  of  another  is  by  coming  to 
us';  and  at  last,  for  a  third  time,  humanity 
rebelled. 

"Through  all  this,  one  sees  ignorance  —  ig- 
norance shown  in  the  conception  of  salvation, 
ignorance  shown  in  the  value  and  relation  of 
laws  to  human  happiness,  and  lastly,  igno- 
rance shown  in  the  conception  of  a  just  circu- 
lating medium.  My  friend,  how  many 
intelligent  people  of  your  time  understood  the 
theory  of  evolution  in  its  broad  application  to 
human  actions .''  Most  men  and  women, 
while  realizing  progress  in  the  past,  regarded 
the  fundamental  condition  of  things  in  the 
nineteenth  century  with  satisfaction.  They 
kept  holidays  in  memory  of  dead  patriots,  and 
persecuted  the  living  ones.  Especially  was 
this  the  case  with  those  who,  from  some 
opportunity  to  which  they  were  born,   led  an 


I04  The  Great  Awakening 

idle,  wasteful  life.  While  hearing  the  rumbling 
voice  of  the  downtrodden,  they  dismissed  any 
earnest  desire  to  change  society,  by  laying  the 
blame  on  human  nature,  by  giving  charity 
while  denying  justice  ;  and  some  there  were 
who  to  all  these  entreaties  for  justice  turned 
a  deaf  ear  and  said,  with  Louis,  '  Apres  moi  le 
deluge.'  Their  retribution  was  quick  and  ter- 
rible ;  and  sad  to  say,  the  innocent  suffered 
with  the  guilty.  But  it  is  always  thus.  No 
great  change  for  the  good  of  humanity  has 
ever  taken  place  but  some  innocent  people 
had  to  suffer. 

"  But  come,  come,  let  us  not  think  of  these 
things.  The  three  tyrannies  humanity  has 
had  to  suffer  from  —  priest,  king,  and  capital- 
ist—  are  too  sad  to  dwell  on  ;  let  us  only  think 
of  the  fact  that  at  last  they  are  things  of 
the  past." 

"  Professor,  what  you  have  said  has  made 
a  deep  impression  on  me.  I  must  admit  that 
under  the  influence  of  the  age  of  money  my 
mind  had  been  prejudiced.  It  stands  now 
before  me  as  clear  as  crystal." 

"  Yes  ?  I  am  glad  it  is  so.  But  let  us  go 
out.  I  want  to  show  you  our  money  depots 
and  our  methods  of  issuing  currency." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

IN  WHICH  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  MONEY  BUREAU, 
MRS.  BRONSON,  GIVES  ME  MUCH  INFORMA- 
TION. 

From  the  library  the  professor  took  me  back 
to  the  carriage  house.  We  got  into  a  hght, 
open  buggy,  and  soon  were  rolhng  along  the 
smooth  avenue.  We  passed  many  residences 
on  either  side,  which  were  mostly  built,  like 
the  professor's,  of  artificial  stone  ;  and  although 
there  was  no  monotony,  neither  was  there  the 
tremendous  difference  in  structures  which  in 
my  time  denoted  tremendous  difference  in 
wealth.  After  travelling  about  four  or  five 
miles,  we  turned  off  the  avenue  to  the  right, 
into  what  was  termed  a  small  side  street 
(this  is  sarcasm  :  it  was  sLxty-five  feet  from 
curb  to  curb,  with  twenty-foot  sidewalks),  and 
crossing  one  more  avenue,  finally  stopped  at 
a  large  brown  stone  building  setting  quite  a 
way  back  from  the  sidewalk,  with  a  fine  lawn 
all  around  it.     It  had  a  large,  arched  entrance 


io6  The  Great  Awakening 

with  fine,  heavy  carving  on  either  side,  and 
the  steps  to  the  door  were  massive  and  broad, 
with  elegant  raiHngs.  The  structure  was 
three  stories  in  height  and  had  numerous  win- 
dows, and  this  fact,  coupled  with  its  standing 
by  itself  on  a  plot  of  'ground  at  least  two 
hundred  feet  square,  must  have  made  it  a  de- 
lightful place  to  work  in. 

The  professor  got  out  and  said,  "  I  will  in- 
troduce you  to  the  manager  of  this  depot,  a 
Mrs.  Bronson,  and  she  will  explain  everything 
and  take  you  over  the  building.  Be  careful 
you  do  not  let  her  know  the  true  state  of  af- 
fairs, for  I  shall  introduce  you  simply  as  Mr. 
Pangloss." 

We  left  the  carriage  and  entered  the  build- 
ing. In  the  centre  there  was  a  statue  of 
Justice,  a  really  magnificent  piece  of  work, 
heroic  size  ;  and  on  either  side  broad  stairways 
led  above.  These  stairways  were  built  of 
marble,  and  the  floor  was  laid  in  mosaic. 

We  were  ushered  into  a  reception  room  by 
an  officer,  and  the  professor  handed  in  his 
card  and  asked  for  Mrs.  Bronson.  While  the 
usher  was  away,  the  professor  told  me  that 
most  of  the  clerks  in  the  depot  were  women, 
the  work  being  light  and  in  many  ways  suited 
to  them.     Soon  the  door  opened,  and  a  lady 


Mrs.  Bronson,  Financier  107 

appeared,  who  greeted  the  professor  cordially. 
The  professor  said  something  to  her  which  I 
could  not  overhear,  but  which  I  knew  must 
be  an  explanation  of  my  ignorance.  I  was 
then  introduced  to  Mrs.  Bronson,  and  the  pro- 
fessor said  to  me,  "  My  friend,  I  leave  you  in 
good  hands,  and  if  you  will  excuse  me  for  half 
an  hour,  I  will  call  for  you  on  my  way  home." 

"  Very  good,"  said  I.     He  then  left  me. 

Mrs.  Bronson,  who  was  to  enlighten  my 
ignorance  and  initiate  me  into  the  secrets  of 
the  scheme  of  finance,  was  a  woman  of  about 
sixty.  She  was  of  medium  height,  with  dark 
eyes  and  hair,  and  had  a  very  pleasant  face. 
Like  the  rest  of  the  women  of  this  republic, 
she  was  wonderfully  well  preserved  ;  one 
would  have  thought  she  was  thirty,  except 
perhaps  that  her  manner  and  dignity  showed 
her  maturity  ;  but  this  was  the  case  with  all, 
and  can  only  be  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that 
the  people  of  this  day  had  little  or  nothing  to 
worry  about.  A  man,  with  simply  his  hands 
and  brain,  could  always  earn  a  fine  living  ;  he 
did  n't  have  to  be  born  into  an  opportunity,  as 
it  was  in  my  day. 

"  Your  friend,  Professor  Harding,  tells  me 
that  you  are  unfamiliar  with  the  finances  of 
the  country." 


io8  The  Great  Awakening 

"  Yes,"  I  remarked,  "  I  am  woefully  igno- 
rant concerning  these  questions." 

"  Well,  let  me  hear  just  what  you  know  con- 
cerning our  system.  Of  course  you  under- 
stand that  market  value  is  simply  a  ratio  of 
exchange,  and  that  the  legislation  of  a  rich 
government  can  raise  or  lower  that  ratio." 

"  Yes,  I  believe  that  is  so," 

"  Also,  that  in  order  never  to  have  the  unit 
of  value  appreciate,  the  volume  of  money  must 
increase  in  exactly  the  same  proportion  that 
wealth  and  trade  do." 

"  Yes,  I  agree  with  you." 

"  Then  of  course  you  understand  that  no 
matter  how  much  increase  there  may  be  in 
the  production  of  commodities,  their  price 
must  never  fall,  for  if  their  price  falls,  it  means 
that  the  volume  of  money  has  not  increased 
as  the  volume  of  the  other  commodities  has  ; 
therefore  the  unit  has  appreciated,  which  can- 
not be  just.  Now,  it  is  also  evident  that  if 
the  volume  of  money  must  keep  pace  with  the 
production  of  wealth,  it  cannot  be  redeemable 
in  any  one  or  two  or  three  commodities,  since 
money  should  be  based  on  all  —  so  we  stow 
nothing  in  our  treasury  vaults.  Our  bills  are 
exchangeable  for  any  or  all  commodities,  and 
they  can  never  be  redeemed,  but  circulate  as 


Mrs.  Bronson,  Financier  109 

they  should.  In  the  old  days,  all  the  circu- 
lating medium  being  based  on  gold,  there 
were  often  times  when  there  was  not  gold 
enough  to  go  round  ;  therefore  confidence  was 
shaken  and  people  hastened  to  redeem  their 
bills.  The  treasury  gold  reserve  was  drawn, 
which  forced  another  bond  issue,  thus  keep- 
ing the  country  perpetually  in  debt.  Come 
with  me  now,  and  I  will  show  you  our  storage 
rooms." 

I  followed  my  guide  across  the  hall  and 
into  a  large  room  to  the  right  of  the  entrance. 
Here  in  large  wooden  drawers  were  stored 
the  new  bills  which  were  to  be  issued  next 
month.  The  bills  were  of  one,  two,  five,  ten, 
twenty,  fifty,  one  hundred,  one  thousand,  and 
ten  thousand  dollar  denominations,  and  were 
very  artistic  productions.  The  scroll  work 
was  admirable,  and  the  vignettes  of  Blackburn, 
the  father  of  this  republic,  and  Putnam,  its 
first  president,  were  far  better  than  any  I  had 
ever  seen  in  my  century.  In  most  respects 
these  bills  were  copies  of  those  of  the  pre- 
ceding republic,  the  only  difference  being 
that  the  government  guarantees  these  bills  to 
be  exchangeable  and  not  redeemable ;  that  is, 
the  government  will  itself  pay  no  commodity_ 
for  them,  but  will  force  a  creditor   to  take 


I  lo  The  Great  Awakening 

them  as  a  settlement  of  debt ;  and  if  the  credi- 
tor wishes  gold  or  any  other  commodity 
instead  of  these  pieces  of  paper,  he  is  at  per- 
fect liberty  to  buy  gold  of  any  one  who  has  it, 
giving  in  return  these  same  pieces  of  paper, 

"  Is  it  well  to  let  so  much  wealth  lie  here, 
with  no  protection  but  a  wooden  case?" 
said  I. 

"Why,  this  is  not  wealth,  it  only  represents 
wealth,  and  who  would  take  it  ?  We  have 
very  heavy  punishments  against  theft,  and 
also  many  unwritten  laws  which  are  very 
much  harder  on  criminality  than  the  laws  of 
the  past  were.  We  do  this  with  safety,  for 
now  there  is  no  reason  for  criminality.  In 
the  old  days,  with  one  hand  government 
pushed  the  criminal  on  with  barbarous  laws 
enacted  for  private  interests,  while  with  the 
other  it  tried  to  check  criminality  by  punish- 
ment. The  people  were  so  foolish  as  not  to 
see  that  an  ounce  of  prevention  is  worth  a 
pound  of  cure.  To-day  we  have  no  mercy  for 
criminals,  but  we  have  no  criminals. 

"This  money  is  sent  here  from  the  central 
depot  where  it  is  made,  and  it  is  kept  here 
until  distributed.  Now,  if  you  will  follow  me, 
I  will  show  you  the  Recording  Bureau." 

I    was    taken   then    across   an  entry,  into 


Mrs.  Bronson,  Financier         1 1 1 

another  room,  where  about  thirty  women 
were  working  at  desks.  My  guide  explained 
that  these  clerks  were  figuring  from  market 
reports  and  quotations  which  were  sent  here 
day  by  day  from  all  the  district  markets  in 
the  country,  in  order  to  compute  the  increase 
of  wealth.  These  figures  were  examined  and 
corrected  by  different  experts,  and  on  the  last 
day  of  the  month  were  sent  to  the  central 
depot.  Here  they  were  received  to  the 
extent  of  many  thousands  ;  and  the  director 
of  the  mint,  comparing  them,  easily  found 
the  mean  between  all  these  reports,  and  de- 
termined his  monthly  issue  of  money  upon 
this.  He  then  notified  the  different  outlying 
depots  of  his  decision  and  the  amount  that 
each  depot  might  issue,  this  latter  being  de- 
termined by  the  population  of  males  and 
females  over  twenty-one  years  of  age  residing 
in  the  district  covered  by  the  depot. 

And  now  came  the  method  of  collecting 
taxes,  which  was  simplicity  itself.  Before 
each  month's  issue  of  money  was  made, 
enough  to  pay  the  running  expenses  of  the 
district  and  the  remuneration  to  those  work- 
ing on  public  works  was  deducted,  and  so 
the  taxes  were  collected  without  any  trouble 
at  all.     When  the  day  of  issuance  came,  the 


1 1 2  The  Great  Awakening 

people  filed  into  the  delivery  room,  and  after 
going  through  a  certain  form,  as  in  my  day 
we  did  when  passing  into  a  voting  booth, 
their  money  was  handed  out  to  them  and 
they  receipted  for  it.  In  order  to  understand 
everything  clearly,  I  put  several  questions  to 
my  guide. 

"If  every  one  should  be  allowed  to  come 
here  and  receive  money  simply  on  the  ground 
of  living  in  the  district,  I  should  think  there 
would  be  many  lazy  ones  who  would  do 
nothing  but  draw  their  salaries." 

"No,"  said  my  friend,  "and  for  this  reason. 
The  issuance  of  money  is  based  on  the  wealth 
produced,  and  therefore  if  some  are  lazy,  they 
hurt  the  pockets  of  the  others,  for  they  decrease 
the  amount  of  money  issued ;  and  if  you  hurt 
a  man  through  his  pocket,  you  have  hurt  him 
badly.  No,  lazy  folks  cannot  exist  here.  If 
a  man  or  woman  performed  no  labor  which 
tended  to  the  general  good,  he  or  she  would 
be  ostracised  and  banished,  or  perhaps  some- 
thing worse  would  happen.  We,  however, 
exempt  married  women  from  every  duty  but 
the  care  of  the  family,  while  all  over  fifty  may 
receive  a  pension  from  the  government,  and 
do  not  work  unless  they  prefer  to  do  so.  The 
money    which    is    spent    on    public  works   is 


Mrs.  Bronson,  Financier         113 

divided  equally  among  the  workers,  it  being 
recognized  that  each  worker  is  as  important 
for  the  accomplishment  of  a  piece  of  work  as 
any  other," 

"  In  the  old  times  I  have  read  that  it  was 
absurd  to  divide  equally,  since  the  difference 
in  the  quality  of  work  was  so  great.  How  is 
this  remedied  now?" 

"Why,  there  is  no  difference  now.  We 
have  mechanics,  carpenters,  laborers  nov/,  all 
trades  are  represented,  but  the  mental  calibre 
of  our  laborers  is  as  fine  as  that  of  any  other 
man.  What  a  man  works  at  has  nothing  to 
do  with  the  calibre  of  his  brain." 

"Why,  I  have  read  that  the  terms  applied 
to  the  laborer  were  always  associated  with 
the  lowest  class  in  intellectual  development." 

"Oh,  I  see  what  you  are  aiming  at.  You 
do  not  understand  the  conditions  under 
which  the  brain  develops.  The  first  and 
primary  condition  is  a  wholesome  environ- 
ment, and  the  second  is  leisure  for  brain 
exercise,  or  reading.  Now,  in  barbarous  times, 
when  people  lived  in  crowded  cities  and  the 
distribution  of  wealth  was  so  cruelly  unjust, 
the  environment  was  of  the  worst  possible 
kind,  and  added  to  this  was  the  fact  that  this 
unjust  distribution  caused  the  lowest  classes 


114  The  Great  Awakening 

to  have  no  leisure  at  all.  How,  then,  could 
you  expect  mental  or  moral  advancement  ? 
The  cart  was  put  before  the  horse.  It  was 
not  human  nature  which  caused  the  distress 
and  the  lack  of  prosperity  and  happiness,  it 
was  unjust  and  barbarous  laws  which  per- 
verted human  nature.  All  of  our  acts  are 
the  result  of  environment,  and  of  that  alone. 
Take  any  nation,  no  matter  how  large,  take 
any  people,  no  matter  how  different  may  be 
their  intellectual  capacities,  and  keep  the 
wealth  equally  divided  between  them  for  a 
period  of  three  or  four  generations,  and  that 
inequality  of  intellectual  capacity  will  dis- 
appear.    Environment  is  everything." 

"  But  you  allow  nothing  to  heredity,  then  ?  " 
"  I  allow  much  to  heredity ;  but  what  is 
heredity  if  it  is  not  the  environment  of  our 
ancestors  passed  down  to  us  through  our 
parents  .'*  Remember  the  environment  of  to- 
day is  the  heredity  of  the  future.  Remem- 
ber that  all  legislation  which  affects  living 
men  also  affects  the  babes  unborn,  even  to  a 
greater  degree  than  it  can  ever  affect  the  leg- 
islators. That  was  the  trouble  in  the  past. 
People  never  thought  that  not  onf^  were  they 
discussing  politics  of  their  own  day,  but  they 
were  shaping  the  politics  of  their  children. 


Mrs.  Bronson,  Financier  115 

Because  a  couple  were  ignorant  is  no  reason 
why  their  children  should  not  have  as  good 
an  education,  environment,  and  opportunities 
as  any  other.  Society  owes  it  to  them,  and 
society  will  be  more  than  repaid  in  the  return 
made  by  the  good  citizen  which  will  result 
from  the  payment  of  the  debt." 

"  What  you  say  is  very  interesting  to  me, 
and  it  causes  me  to  look  at  things  from  an- 
other point  of  view  entirely.  If  you  distrib- 
ute equally,  do  all  live  alike,  then  ?  Is  there 
a  monotony  in  life  now  .?  " 

"  Not  at  all.  There  is  no  law  against  a 
man  hoarding  if  he  wants  to  ;  so  long  as  he 
labors  he  can  spend  or  not  as  he  pleases,  and 
it  is  often  the  case  that  a  man  will  cut  down 
his  expenses  and  save  money  in  order  to  make 
some  great  expenditure,  like  travelling.  Or 
if  a  man  wishes  to  devote  a  year  or  more  to 
the  preparation  of  some  work  for  his  own 
personal  gratification,  he  may  take  a  year's 
vacation  at  any  time,  as  he  simply  has  to  save 
enough  to  support  him  during  that  year.  Of 
course  if  a  man  chooses  to  do  this,  his  name 
is  crossed  off  the  list  of  people  to  whom 
money  is  to  be  issued,  during  the  period  of 
his  vacation.  When  he  returns  to  work  he 
simply  notifies  us,  and  his  name  is  again  en- 


ii6  The  Great  Awakening 

tered.  The  difference  between  this  method 
and  the  ancient  one  is  that  with  us  a  man  can 
Hve  only  on  his  principal  ;  in  no  way  can  he 
get  interest.  Interest  on  money  implies  on 
its  face  a  scarcity  of  what  of  all  things 
should  be  common — a  circulating  medium. 
So  while  in  ancient  times  a  man,  by  accumu- 
lating money,  could  put  it  in  land  or  stocks 
or  bonds,  and  thus  live  on  the  rent  or  profits, 
with  us  rents  and  profits  do  not  exist ;  so  that 
a  man  can  live  only  on  what  he  is  entitled  to, 
that  is,  what  by  his  industry  and  frugality  he 
has  saved.  In  ancient  times  one  man  by  his 
industry  could  not  only  live  in  his  old  age, 
which  is  just,  but  he  could  arrange  it  so  that 
neither  his  son,  nor  his  grandson,  nor  any  of 
his  descendants,  even  to  the  tenth  genera- 
tion, need  work,  which  is  manifestly  unjust. 

"The  industry  of  one  man  can  justly  affect 
his  own  life,  but  only  his.  The  condition  of 
every  man  can  justly  depend  upon  his  own 
labor  and  nothing  else,  regardless  whether  he 
is  born  of  thrifty  or  lazy  parents. 

"  What  the  rich  people  of  the  nineteenth 
century  left  to  their  sons  was  not  wealth,  but 
it  was  a  patent  issued  by  the  governments 
whereby  the  holder  was  entitled  to  take  as  his 
own  some  of  the  wealth  of  other  people.     He 


Mrs.  Bronson,  Financier         117 

was  thus  a  legal  robber,  and  his  patent  was 
represented  by  stocks  or  bonds.  Money  is 
not  wealth  and  never  can  be  wealth.  It  is 
simply  a  permit,  backed  up  by  the  govern- 
ment which  issues  it,  which  allows  the  owner 
of  it  to  procure  wealth  in  exchange.  It  is 
simply  a  receipt  for  labor  performed.  If  is- 
sued to  laborers,  it  is  just ;  if  issued  to  non- 
producers,  it  is  criminally  unjust." 

At  this  moment  I  saw  the  professor  coming 
back  in  the  buggy,  and  I  was  obliged  to  stop 
in  the  midst  of  my  interesting  conversation 
with  the  manager  of  the  depot.  She  came 
with  me  to  the  door,  and  as  we  said  good-by  I 
promised  to  visit  her  again  and  talk  with  her 
on  finance. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

WHICH    TELLS    OF    MY    FIRST    RIDE    IN    A 
FLYING    MACHINE. 

During  my  ride  home  the  professor  and  I 
conversed  on  many  subjects.  He  had  been 
to  a  lecture  on  psychology,  and  we  got  talk- 
ing about  the  sixth  sense,  as  it  was  called. 

"  When  we  look  out  of  this  buggy,"  said 
the  professor,  "  the  rays  of  reflected  light, 
striking  the  retina  of  our  eyes,  stimulate  the 
optic  nerve,  and  a  message  is  carried  to  the 
brain.  This  modifies  certain  conditions  pre- 
vailing there  in  such  a  manner  as  to  give  us 
the  sensation  of  sight.  Now,  it  was  thought 
that  this  brain  condition  could  not  be  brought 
about  unless  stimulated  by  the  optic  nerve,  or 
by  a  reflex  action  of  certain  nerve  cells  which 
govern  memory  ;  but  this  is  found  to  be  un- 
true, and  it  is  well  known  now  that  any  brain 
condition  may  be  produced  simply  by  the 
action  of  some  other  brain,  by  induction,  as  it 
were ;  and  any  condition  so  produced  is  said 


Through  the  Air  119 

to  result  from  the  use  of  the  sixth  sense. 
This  sometimes  happens  when  the  people  are 
widely  separated,  and  matter  seems  to  have 
but  little  effect  upon  the  phenomenon.  To- 
day, during  the  lecture,  a  very  interesting 
experiment  was  tried.  Wehlen  showed  that 
certain  vibrations  of  ether  did  have  a  tremen- 
dous effect  on  thought  transference.  Pro- 
fessor Harvey  seated  himself  upon  the  stage 
with  his  side  to  the  audience,  and  a  Mr. 
Archer  was  seated  on  the  other  side,  back  to 
the  professor.  Mr.  Archer  was  blindfolded, 
and  then  from  a  table  Professor  Harvey  took 
up  a  pack  of  cards,  one  after  another ;  and  Mr. 
Archer  had  no  trouble  in  naming  all  of  them. 
A  screen  of  baize  was  next  placed  between  the 
two  men,  but  the  result  was  the  same.  With 
glass  or  metal,  the  callings  were  slower,  Mr. 
Archer  claiming  that  the  impressions  were 
not  nearly  so  distinct ;  but  in  no  case  did  the  one 
fail  to  call  the  impression  in  the  other's  mind. 
When,  however,  a  beam  of  white  light  was 
thrown  across  the  field  between  the  two 
brains,  the  impressions  were  different.  Mr. 
Archer  could  in  no  case  tell  the  color,  although 
he  could  call  the  number  of  spots.  If  differ- 
ent shades  took  the  place  of  the  white  light, 
the  impressions  were  still  different.      There 


I20  The  Great  Awakening 

can  be  no  doubt  now  that  one  brain  can  con- 
verse with  another  through  the  medium  of 
ether.  Just  how  to  perfect  this  art  is  a  very 
deep  problem,  however,  and  I  suppose  it  will 
advance  slowly,  as  language  did.  Hazelit, 
whose  book  you  were  reading  the  other  night, 
is  an  authority  on  this. 

"  You  see  now  that  we  can  explain  natu- 
rally certain  phenomena  which  were  unexplain- 
able  in  your  day.  For  instance,  if  suddenly 
a  man  had  a  vision  of  the  death  of  a  friend  — 
a  vision  so  perfect  in  all  its  details  as  to  leave 
a  lasting  impression  - —  and  afterwards  found 
that  the  vision  was  a  true  and  exact  one,  he 
concluded  that  either  his  friend's  soul  had 
visited  him  or  his  soul  had  suddenly  been 
transported  to  the  death  scene.  Neither  con- 
clusion was  correct.  The  amount  of  the 
matter  is,  that  from  some  cause  or  other,  at  the 
instant  of  death  the  two  men's  brains  became 
sympathetic,  and  the  dying  man  firmly  im- 
pressed his  surroundings  upon  his  friend's 
brain.  It  was  a  question  of  thought  trans- 
ference." 

As  the  professor  had  been  talking,  our 
machine  had  been  running  along  at  a  good 
speed.  We  had  not  taken  the  same  road 
back,    however,   and   from  our   surroundings 


Through  the  Air  121 

I  recognized  the  fact  that  we  were  not  going 
home.  The  professor,  it  seems,  had  another 
treat  for  me,  and  before  I  knew  it,  we 
rode  up  to  a  very  high  tower-hke  struc- 
ture, standing  on  a  massive  granite  building, 
which  was  six  stories  high.  An  air  wharf  it 
was  called  ;  and  the  professor  ran  our  buggy 
into  the  yard,  and  we  both  got  out  and  entered 
the  building,  and  were  lucky  enough  to  be  able 
to  hire  an  aerodrome,  as  the  machine  is  called. 
I  suppose  the  word  is  derived  from  the  Greek 
and  means  to  run  on  air.  The  professor  paid 
at  the  ofhce,  and  we  were  conducted  to  the 
top  floor,  which  was  simply  an  open  loft,  in 
which  were  several  machines.  A  number  of 
men  were  examining  and  cleaning  the  motors, 
and  we  were  introduced  to  one  of  the  engi- 
neers, who,  when  I  begged  to  be  allowed  to  ex- 
amine the  drome  before  we  set  out  to  fly, 
kindly  explained  everything. 

This  machine  consisted  of  three  kite-like 
surfaces,  placed  one  above  the  other,  with 
about  six  feet  between.  The  framework  was 
of  steel  tubing  guyed  with  fine  wire.  Each 
surface  was  curved  in  cross  section,  somewhat 
like  a  bird's  wing,  and  was  seven  feet  broad 
by  thirty  feet  long,  which  gave  sLx  hundred 
and  thirty  square  feet  as  the  total  supporting 


122  The  Great  Awakening 

surface,  that  being  sufficient,  so  the  gentle- 
man said,  to  support  at  least  twelve  hundred 
pounds.  The  machine  weighed,  as  it  stood 
before  me,  motors  and  all,  about  five  hundred 
pounds.  The  body  rested  on  three  pneumatic- 
tired  wheels,  and  between  the  lower  and  second 
surface  was  an  open  framework,  on  which 
rested  the  boat-like  structure  in  which  we  sat. 
Behind  us  were  the  rudder  and  the  two  pro- 
pellers and  their  motors,  while  in  front  was  the 
generator.  This  was  in  the  body  of  the  ma- 
chine, which  could  be  moved  at  the  will  of 
the  operator  to  any  part  of  the  open  frame- 
work, this  movement  assuring  stability.  It 
was  something  like  the  sliding  seat  which  was 
used  in  the  racing  canoe  of  my  day,  and  an- 
swered the  same  purpose. 

We  all  took  our  seats,  myself  opposite  the 
professor,  while  the  engineer  sat  in  front  to 
be  near  the  guiding  lever ;  and  when  the 
elevator  came  down  our  machine  was  wheeled 
on,  and  in  a  moment  we  were  rising  inside  of 
the  steel  tower.  When  we  got  to  the  top,  I 
will  admit  that  I  felt  nervous  and  would  have 
backed  out  if  it  could  have  been  done  with 
honor ;  but  no,  I  was  in  for  it,  and  I  knew  I 
was  going  to  drop  over  the  edge  of  that  tower 
one   hundred    and    sixty-five    feet    from   the 


Through  the  Air  123 

ground.  The  elevator  stopped  when  we  ar- 
rived at  the  top,  and  I  saw  that  we  had  been 
so  placed  on  it  that  we  were  exactly  facing 
the  wind. 

"  Now,"  said  our  friend,  "  do  you  want  to 
look  about,  or  shall  we  sail  off  immediately } " 

"  Oh,  let  us  go,"  said  the  professor,  and  be- 
fore I  could  offer  any  objection,  our  friend 
blew  a  whistle,  whereupon  one  side  —  the  lee- 
ward—  of  the  elevator  raised  itself,  and  as  our 
machine  was  on  wheels,  it  naturally  rolled  off 
the  edge. 

Words  cannot  describe  my  feelings  during 
that  first  horrible  moment  of  falling.  The 
motion  of  a  swing  conveys  the  same,  but,  oh, 
so  feebly.  It  seemed  as  if  my  very  bowels 
were  falling  away  from  me,  as  if  I  was  falling 
apart.  This  feeling,  I  am  happy  to  say,  did 
not  last,  for  after  a  fall  of  fifty  or  sixty  feet, 
with  a  turn  of  the  lever  our  captain  brought 
us  to  the  horizontal  ;  another  turn,  whirr ! 
went  the  propellers,  and  we  were  in  full  flight. 
I  had  now  got  over  my  fright  and  was  be- 
ginning to  feel  another  sensation,  a  most  de- 
lightful one.  Never  in  all  my  life  had  I  felt 
such  a  charming  one.  I  cannot  account  for 
this  except  on  the  ground  that  to  feel  firmly 
supported    and  yet    to    look    down   and    see 


124  The  Great  Awakening 

nothing  but  space  between  one  and  the  earth 
is  such  a  novel  sensation  that  it  is  charming 
simply  from  its  novelty. 

I  now  perceived  that  we  were  going  up  hill, 
and  while  our  little  motors  were  working  away 
at  a  great  rate,  the  earth  was  gradually  falling 
away  from  us.  As  we  went  higher,  the  wind 
got  stronger,  and  the  captain  had  to  move  us 
constantly  to  different  parts  of  the  frame  to 
keep  the  machine  balanced.  The  gusts  were 
frequent  and  powerful  and  came  apparently 
with  no  regularity,  so  that  I  realized  that  it 
took  no  mean  degree  of  skill  to  keep  the 
drome  on  an  even  level.  I  could  now  sit  and 
look  at  the  landscape  at  my  leisure,  and  I  saw, 
stretched  almost  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach, 
the  same  country  I  had  ridden  through,  the 
same  beautiful  streets  with  flowers  and  trees, 
the  same  beautiful  houses,  and  no  smoke,  no 
chimneys,  no  wires  to  mar  the  beauty  of  na- 
ture moulded  by  man.  When  we  had  reached 
an  altitude  of  i  ,000  feet,  the  captain  said  it  was 
as  high  as  he  dared  to  go.  The  wind  was 
getting  stronger,  and  he  carried  too  much  sail 
for  safety.  I  asked  him  why  it  was  not  so 
arranged  that  some  of  the  sail  could  be  taken 
in  —  reefed,  so  to  speak  —  to  which  he  replied 
it  was  not  practicable  to  do  so  in  such  a  frail 


Through  the  Air  125 

machine  as  an  aerodrome  must  necessarily  be, 
so  to  take  in  sail  one  must  make  a  landing. 
And  now  we  began  to  circle.  The  motors 
were  stopped,  the  propellers  disconnected,  and 
we  commenced  soaring.  We  glided  in  great 
circles  of,  I  should  say,  a  mile  in  diameter ; 
and  as  we  went  with  the  wind  we  would  drop, 
and  then,  turning  into  a  puff,  we  would  with 
our  increased  velocity  regain  our  former  alti- 
tude ;  but  each  circle  was  a  little  farther  from 
the  wind  than  the  former ;  in  other  words, 
while  always  at  the  same  average  height,  we 
were  gradually  drifting  to  leeward.  This,  in- 
deed, was  the  very  poetry  of  motion.  This, 
indeed,  was  the  triumph  of  man's  skill,  of  his 
control  over  nature. 

For  three  quarters  of  an  hour  we  sailed  one 
thousand  feet  above  the  earth,  during  which 
time  we  covered  at  least  eighteen  or  twenty 
miles  in  circles,  and  this  with  no  effort  except 
a  turn  of  the  captain's  hand,  as  he  kept  the 
machine  balanced  at  the  necessary  angles. 
Think  of  it  !  There  was  twelve  hundred 
pounds  in  mid-air,  seemingly  unsupported,  and 
yet  our  friend  could  move  that  weight  up  or 
down,  to  the  left  or  right,  and  this  without 
any  machinery  moving  at  all.  In  my  time 
this  would  have  seemed  little  short  of  miracu- 


126  The  Great  Awakening 

lous  ;  still,  what  was  so  common  as  to  see  a 
hawk  performing  just  such  a  feat  ? 

No  other  method  of  travel  can  be  compared 
with  this.  Here  is  no  smoke,  no  dust,  no 
noise,  no  jar.  Seasickness  is  unknown  here. 
The  calm  and  peacefulness  of  this  heaven  in 
the  skies  is  unbroken,  save  by  the  murmur  of 
the  wires  as  we  rush  through  the  air.  Being 
so  far  from  any  earthly  things,  we  do  not 
realize  the  speed  with  which  we  are  moving ; 
and  if  it  were  not  for  the  whistling  wind,  we 
might  easily  imagine  that  some  kind  fairy  had 
placed  us  here  in  order  that  we  might  com- 
mune with  nature,  uninfluenced  by  the  busy 
world  beneath.  I  really  think  that  a  week 
spent  in  the  air,  entirely  away  from  the  earth, 
would  be  such  a  rest  that  one,  on  returning, 
would  be  only  too  anxious  to  .get  back  to  his 
haven  of  heavenly  calm  in  the  skies.  This 
thought  found  my  tongue. 

"Professor,"  I  said,  "do  people  ever  sleep 
in  these  machines  and  spend  more  than  one 
day  in  the  air  }  " 

"  Yes,  indeed.  I  have  some  friends  who 
are  very  fond  of  spending  weeks  in  that  way. 
They,  of  course,  have  to  take  provisions  and 
extra  supplies,  and  as  these  weigh  considera- 
bly, only  two  men  can  go  in  a  machine.     The 


Through  the  Air  127 

cabin  is  partly  decked  over,  giving  room  for 
two  bunks ;  but  some  one  has  to  be  at  the 
lever  all  the  time.     The  two  men  take  turns." 

"  I  should  think  their  quarters  would  be 
terribly  cramped." 

"  Well,  they  are  ;  but  my  friends  tell  me 
that  the  effect  of  the  view  on  the  mind  is 
partly  to  mitigate  the  feeling,  for  the  pano- 
rama is  so  extensive,  and  the  possible  move- 
ment of  the  machine  so  great,  that  the  fact  of 
their  being  tied  to  a  box  the  size  of  this  is  not 
realized.  However,  if  they  stayed  over  one 
spot  the  view  would  soon  become  monotonous, 
and  then  they  would  feel  their  confinement  ; 
but  in  a  week  they  sometimes  travel  as  much 
as  3,000  miles  —  not  in  a  straight  line,  of 
course,  but  in  circles.  If  one  is  used  to  tak- 
ing exercise  every  day,  he  feels  the  lack  of 
it,  but  for  a  man  in  middle  age  nothing  gives 
such  rest  and  quiet  as  a  week  spent  in  the 
skies." 

As  the  wind  was  freshening  up  a  bit  and 
our  time  had  expired,  the  captain  turned  our 
ship  towards  home,  and  with  a  swoop  we 
darted  down  across  the  wind.  Rising  in  a 
circle,  another  swoop  was  made,  and,  alter- 
nately rising  and  falling,  the  captain  ma- 
noeuvred our   craft   back  towards  the  tower 


128  The  Great  Awakening 

where  we  had  made  our  start.  When  we 
had  got  within  a  mile  or  two  of  the  tower  the 
propellers  were  started,  and  the  professor  ex- 
plained that  to  make  a  safe  landing  this  was 
necessary.  We  approached  the  building  at 
high  speed,  and  I  saw  that  the  elevator  was 
down,  and  wondered  what  we  would  do,  for 
we  were  now  about  one  hundred  feet  above 
ground  and  travelling  in  such  a  direction  that 
we  would  leave  the  tower  on  the  left. 

"  Watch,  he  will  signal  for  the  elevator," 
said  the  professor. 

It  was  so  ;  for,  as  we  passed  the  building, 
the  captain  blew  a  great  number  of  short, 
sharp  whistles,  and  then  we  began  to  rise. 
As  we  went  higher  we  made  a  big  circle  to 
the  left,  and  came  round  so  as  to  face  the 
tower  again.  The  elevator  was  rising,  but 
before  it  reached  the  top  we  had  to  make 
another  complete  circle,  so  that  at  the  second 
trial  it  was  ready,  and  we  approached  it,  from 
a  slightly  lower  elevation,  however. 

"  He  will  rise  to  it,"  said  the  professor. 

As  we  got  within  one  hundred  feet  of 
it,  a  turn  of  the  lever  changed  the  angle ; 
swiftly  we  rose,  and  an  excellent  landing 
would  have  been  made  if,  unluckily,  a  heavy 
puff    had  not  come  at   just  the  wrong    mo- 


Through  the  Air  129 

ment.  This  puff  drove  us  upward,  and  the 
opportunity  was  lost.  Quickly  the  propellers 
were  started,  the  angle  was  changed,  and  we 
were  off  to  circle  once  more.  A  landing  was 
then  made  successfully,  and  the  captain 
jumped  out,  fastened  the  machine,  blew  the 
Avhistle,  and  in  a  short  time  the  elevator  had 
lowered  us,  bag  and  baggage,  to  the  loft. 

Thus  ended  my  first  ride  through  the  air, 
and  I  can  truthfully  say  that  never,  either 
before  or  since,  have  I  enjoyed  anything  as  I 
did  that  sojourn  in  the  skies.  My  ride  back 
with  the  professor  in  his  nice  little  horseless 
buggy  seemed  tame,  and  I  wondered  how  I 
ever  could  have  been  captivated  with  things 
that  move  on  the  rough,  uneven  earth,  when 
I  could  soar  forever  with  the  eagles  in  the 
deep  blue  sky.  My  friend  must  have  read 
my  thoughts,  for  he  said,  "  To  fly  is  a  pleas- 
ure, to  ride  in  streets  a  necessity." 

"True,  a  place  for  everything,  and  every- 
thing in  its  place,"  I  said. 


CHAPTER   X. 

IN  WHICH    THE   ECONOMICAL    ERRORS    OF    MY 
DAY    ARE    EXPLAINED    TO    ME. 

After  this  the  conversation  lagged,  and  we 
were  both  occupied  with  our  thoughts.  A 
half  hour  went  by,  and  we  were  at  home. 
The  carriage  was  put  up,  and  the  professor 
and  I  went  into  the  house.  The  next  morn- 
ing we  were  again  in  the  buggy  on  our  way  to 
visit  one  of  the  large  factories,  and  this  time 
we  took  another  direction. 

"Professor,"  said  I,  "you  say  you  have  no 
cities.  Surely,  all  over  the  country  the  popu- 
lation is  not  spread  out  as  it  is  here  ? " 

"  No,  this  is  a  thickly  settled  district,  and 
corresponds  to  the  outskirts  of  your  city. 
We  do  not  live  miles  apart,  for  that  were 
foolish  ;  we  do  not  live  in  each  other's  back 
yards,  for  that  were  more  than  foolish  and  an 
artificial  condition  besides.  Congestion  (or 
in  other  words,  cities)  was  necessary  with 
such  a  barbarous  system  of  finance  current  in 
your  time,  but  it  is  not  so  now." 


Economic  Sophistries  Exposed     1 3 1 

"  Then  you  have  some  open  country  left 
still?" 

"Of  course,  acres  of  it." 
"  Well,  to  whom  does  it  belong  ?  " 
"  Why,  to  nobody  in  particular,  but  to  any- 
body who  will  show  that  he  can  increase  the 
total  wealth  by  using  it.  It  can  be  used  by 
no  one  for  a  monopoly,  but  by  any  one  to  in- 
crease wealth." 

"  Well,  but  how  is  this  settled  ?  Suppos- 
ing I  own  a  piece  of  ground  —  " 

"That  is  not  allowed,"  said  the  professor. 
"  You  may  use  a  piece  of  ground,  but  you 
cannot  own  it,  for  that  implies  the  ability  to 
use  it  for  any  purpose  whatsoever  and  is  not 
countenanced  for  a  moment.  One  cannot 
own  other  forms  of  wealth,  if  the  use  of  that 
wealth  helps  to  create  more  wealth.  Any 
wealth  that  is  used  simply  to  satisfy  human 
desires  directly  may  be  owned,  such  as  food, 
clothing,  dwelling  houses,  pictures,  books, 
musical  instruments,  etc.;  but  the  wealth  in 
the  form  of  machines,  used  to  create  this 
other  wealth,  cannot  be  owned  ;  its  use  cannot 
be  controlled  by  individuals." 

"  How  can  you  prevent  this,  professor }  " 
"  It  is  a  very  simple  matter.     Since  the 
issuance  of  money  every  month  is  based  on 


132  The  Great  Awakening 

the  increased  wealth,  it  follows  that  everybody 
is  anxious  to  use  these  labor-saving  machines 
in  such  a  way  as  to  produce  the  greatest 
amount  of  wealth.  If,  for  instance,  I  and  sev- 
eral of  my  friends  are  working  in  a  building, 
and  some  one  shows  that  if  different  machines 
and  different  methods  are  introduced  more 
wealth  will  be  created,  why,  then  everybody 
welcomes  the  change,  since  it  means  more 
money  in  everybody's  pocket.  In  your  time 
such  a  change  meant  only  money  to  the  one 
who  suggested  it,  and  those  turned  out  did 
not  benefit  by  it.  This  was  why  ignorant 
men  always  fought  against  the  introduction 
of  labor  saving  machines.  However,  they 
were  not  so  wrong,  after  all.  Those  machines 
never  did  them  any  good  —  that  is  to  say, 
relative  to  the  benefit  reaped  by  the  private 
owners.  They  should  have  been  called  profit- 
making  machines.  Did  the  man  who  was 
bom  with  no  ability  but  to  labor  get  more 
than  a  bare  living,  in  spite  of  the  so-called 
labor-saving  machines  ?  The  wealth  of  a 
country  depends  upon  the  speed  and  ease  of 
production,  but  the  happiness  of  the  people 
of  that  country  depends  upon  that  wealth  be- 
ing equally  distributed.  Now,  it  was  a  hard, 
cold  fact,  and  even  the  lowest  classes  some- 


Economic  Sophistries  Exposed    133 

times  saw  it,  that  when  weahh  was  produced 
in  greatest  abundance,  it  was  divided  with  the 
greatest  injustice.  This  was  why  the  com- 
mon people  wished  to  prevent  the  production 
of  weakh,  and  therefore  they  broke  the  labor- 
saving  machines.  In  your  century  this  aver- 
sion to  so-called  overproduction  was  found  in 
the  doctrine  of  protection  which  prevailed  to 
a  greater  or  less  extent  in  all  the  half-civilized 
countries  of  Europe  and  America.  People 
should  have  had  sense  enough  to  see  that  the 
error  lay,  not  in  the  production  of  wealth,  but 
in  the  terribly  unjust  distribution.  Let  the 
medium  of  exchange  increase  in  just  the  same 
proportion  as  the  wealth  does,  and  the  wealth 
will  be  equally  divided.  Then  the  richest 
countries  will  be  the  happiest.  The  reverse 
was  true  in  your  time.  England,  for  in- 
stance, by  her  legislation  on  the  tariff,  had 
made  herself  rich,  for  she  had  enormously  in- 
creased her  trade  ;  and  one  must  trade  what 
one  has  before  more  can  be  produced.  But 
failing  to  bring  legislation  to  bear  on  the  dis- 
tribution of  that  wealth  by  increasing  the 
circulating  medium  in  a  similar  proportion,  she 
thus  grew  in  poverty  as  fast  as  she  grew 
in  wealth." 

"  I  have  read,  professor,  that  private  prop- 


134  The  Great  Awakening 

erty  in  land  was  the  cause  of  the  evil  in 
England." 

"  Private  property  in  land  is  but  a  neat  way 
of  perpetuating  the  inequality  of  the  distribu- 
tion of  wealth,  which  has  its  origin  in  the  lim- 
itation of  the  issue  of  money.  Increase  the 
quantity  of  money  with  wealth,  so  that  there 
can  be  no  interest,  and  there  will  be  no  inequal- 
ity to  perpetuate." 

"  What  would  have  been  the  result  of  the 
single  tax,  professor,  if  it  had  been  applied.'' " 

"  A  very  beneficial  one.  It  would  have 
stopped  land  speculation  and  forced  owners  to 
use  unoccupied  land.  In  many  ways  it  would 
have  been  excellent.  For  instance,  the  tax 
could  have  been  collected  with  the  utmost 
ease  ;  it  would  have  fallen  on  those  who,  in 
your  time,  were  best  able  to  bear  it.  It  could 
not  have  been  forced  on  to  the  laborer,  as  the 
tariff  was  ;  and  it  would  have  made  a  country 
grow  rich,  since  it  would  have  stimulated  and 
not  hampered  industry.  But  I  doubt  if  it 
would  have  made  any  more  equal  distribution 
of  wealth.  It  amounts  to  this.  Under  the 
single  tax  system  land  rent  would  go  to 
the  State.  Now,  in  your  time  the  State  was 
composed  of  a  body  of  men  nominally  elected 
by  the  people,  but  really  elected  by  a  certain 


Economic  Sophistries  Exposed      135 

set  of  henchmen  who  worked  the  primary 
caucuses.  It  follows  that,  with  such  a  large 
fund  in  the  treasury  which  the  single  tax  would 
collect,  under  the  control  of  the  few  men  who 
composed  the  State,  the  chances  of  its  being 
spent  wholly  in  a  way  to  benefit  the  masses 
were  very  small.  With  such  a  fund  politics 
would  be  more  corrupt  than  ever,  and  land 
ownership  would  be  simply  transferred  from 
the  many  nominal  owners  to  the  few  who 
really  controlled  the  State. 

"  To  treat  land  as  private  property  is  mor- 
ally wrong,  but  to  say  that  the  single  tax  was 
a  remedy  for  all  existing  evils  is  another  thing 
entirely.  A  country  would  grow  immensely 
rich  under  it,  as  under  free  trade,  but  what 
wealth  did  not  go  to  the  capitalist  would  go  to 
the  politician,  so  there  would  still  be  a  great 
inequality  of  distribution  and  therefore  un- 
happiness.  But  then,  inequality  of  distribu- 
tion started  long  before  land  values  existed. 
It  started  when  trade  started,  and  was  caused 
by  the  fact  that  unwritten  legislation  —  that 
is,  custom  —  gave  to  one  commodity  the  at- 
tribute of  a  standard  of  market  values  and  al- 
lowed that  commodity  to  circulate  as  a  medium 
of  exchange.  It  naturally  followed  that  as 
trade  increased,   money  got   scarce,  and  the 


136  The  Great  Awakening 

owners  of  the  commodity,  money,  Hved  by 
lending  a  thing  which  could  not  justly  belong 
to  them.  This  caused  the  first  unjust  dis- 
tribution of  wealth,  which  would  not  have  ex- 
isted except  for  the  ignorance  of  the  masses 
concerning  the  true  function  of  money. 

"  Interest,  considered  by  itself,  is  not  un- 
just ;  but  interest  implies  that  there  is  a  bor- 
rower and  a  lender,  and  the  injustice  lies  in 
the  fact  that  there  should  be  such  inequality 
of  distribution  that  some  exist  simply  by  lend- 
ing, while  others,  less  fortunate  in  their  birth, 
should  be  always  borrowing." 

"  But,  professor,  if  there  is  no  natural  jus- 
tification of  interest,  how  is  it,  then,  that  you 
can  say  that  interest  in  itself  is  just  ? " 

"  Why,  for  this  reason.  Society  is  not  jus- 
tified in  forcing  one  individual  to  help  another. 
The  laws  should  be  so  adjusted  that  all  have 
similar  opportunities  and  enjoy  similar  benefits. 
In  any  society  in  which  this  is  true,  wealth 
would  be  equally  divided ;  and  if  any  borrow- 
ing took  place  it  would  not  be  from  necessity. 
Under  such  conditions  interest  on  the  loan  is 
justifiable,  since  no  man  is  called  upon  indi- 
vidually to  help  another  gratis,  by  the  laws  of 
society. 

"  The  curse  of  interest   in  your  time  was 


Economic  Sophistries  Exposed     137 

the  fact  that  it  existed  to  such  an  extent  that 
thousands  of  people  were  idlers  living  by 
lending  ;  and  the  cause  of  this  was  the  finan- 
cial system,  which  limited  the  increase  of 
money,  thereby  making  it  scarce,  and  thereby 
giving  the  owners  of  it  the  opportunity  of  liv- 
ing royally  by  lending. 

"  It  was  the  '  honest  dollar  '  which  caused 
this.  Consider  for  a  moment.  As  popula- 
tion was  always  increasing,  there  was  a  con- 
stantly increasing  horde  of  applicants  for 
work.  Now  the  '  honest  dollar  '  made  it  very 
hard  to  get  work,  since  if  a  dollar  buys  much, 
it  is  hard  to  get,  which  is  evident,  since  such 
a  dollar  shows  that  the  supply  is  very  much  less 
than  the  demand.  From  this  you  can  easily 
see  that  monometallism  was  bad  economics, 
since,  no  matter  how  well  it  fitted  one  genera- 
tion, the  next,  an  enlarged  one  with  many 
more  demands,  always  suffered  by  it.  Mono- 
metallism was  bound  to  cause  a  deterioration 
in  any  nation  which  upheld  it,  and  it  finally 
led  to  the  Chaotic  Era,  as  you  already  know. 
But  we  are  at  the  end  of  our  journey,  and  our 
conversation  must  be  postponed." 

The  factory  we  reached  was  used  for  the 
making  of  shoes.  It  was  a  one-story  stone 
affair,  full  of  windows,  and  set  upon   a  large 


138  The  Great  Awakening 

plot  of  ground  some  way  from  the  street,  with 
a  pretty  la^vn  in  front,  having  beds  of  flowers 
on  either  side  of  the  path  to  the  door  ;  while 
farther  away  on  the  right  and  left  were  broad 
driveways,  where  the  drays  came  and  went 
from  and  to  the  retail  stores.  We  left  our 
carriage,  and  walking  up  the  path,  entered  the 
building,  where  we  were  met  by  a  young 
woman,  to  whom  I  was  introduced,  and  who 
gave  us  permission  to  look  over  the  factory. 
As  the  professor  had  been  here  several  times 
no  guide  was  necessary. 

In  one  end  of  the  building  were  the  finish- 
ing and  packing  rooms,  where  a  great  many 
men  were  working,  sending  off  case  upon  case 
of  fine  shoes  and  boots  to  the  market  ;  and 
the  most  noticeable  thing  to  me  in  this  room 
was  the  cleanliness  of  the  workers,  their  intel- 
ligence, and  the  quiet  and  order  which  reigned 
in  every  part. 

"  Who  is  the  manager  of  this  depart- 
ment .-'  "  I  asked  the  professor. 

"  Sometimes  one  man,  sometimes  another. 
They  take  turns." 

"Well,  but  does  it  not  take  more  brains  to 
manage  than  to  simply  pack  shoes  ?  And  if 
so,  are  there  not  some  who  are  mentally  more 
capable  of  this  work  than  others  .''  " 


Economic  Sophistries  Exposed     139 

«  You  must  remember  that  these  men  who 
pack  shoes  are  not  unequal  intellectually  to 
any  other  men,  having  had  the  same  environ- 
ment and  the  same  hereditary  influence. 
Their  leader  for  the  day  is  simply  the  one  who 
takes  a  general  charge  for  that  day,  and  since 
those  under  him  are  of  high  intelligence,  his 
task  is  but  light." 

We  moved  off  to  another  room  and  wit- 
nessed in  detail  the  manufacturing  process. 
All  the  work  was  done  by  machines  driven  by 
the  electric  current,  and  the  men  simply  man- 
aged the  machines.  There  were  but  few 
styles  of  shoes  made  ;  the  professor  telling  me 
that  as  the  race  progressed  people  cared  less 
and  less  for  the  ornamentation  of  their 
persons. 

"I  do  not  mean  that  we  do  not  worship 
beauty  in  design  and  manufacture,"  he  said. 
"  We  do,  and  strive  in  all  our  garments  to  get 
the  greatest  beauty  compatible  with  useful- 
ness. But  in  all  things  made  to  satisfy  human 
desires,  utility  is  first  considered  with  us. 
This  saves  an  immense  amount  of  labor  ex- 
pended in  your  day  on  fashions  —  creations 
which  subordinated  the  chief  use  of  an  article 
to  an  artificial  use,  born  wholly  in  those  who, 
by  their  wealth,  stood  before  the  foolish  mul- 


140  The  Great  Awakening 

titude  as  models  to  be  copied,  and  diverted  in- 
dustry to  those  channels  in  which  perishable 
wealth  was  always  created.  This  creating  of 
commodities  which  one  day  had  a  high  mar- 
ket value  and  the  next  day  no  value,  be- 
cause of  fashion,  wasted  the  energies  of  many 
brains  and  many  hands.  The  cause  back  of 
it  all  was  the  unequal  distribution  of  wealth, 
caused  by  the  barbarous  financial  scheme  in 
which  those  who  had  got  more,  and  those  who 
had  not  got  nothing.  With  an  equal  distri- 
bution of  wealth,  which  would  take  place  with 
a  scientific  system  of  finance,  no  one  could 
pose  as  a  model,  therefore  there  would  be  no 
fashions,  so  that  this  energy  lost  in  your  day 
is  saved  now. 

"  In  the  finest  economic  system  wealth  is 
created  only  in  those  forms  that  are  perma- 
nent as  long  as  the  commodity  itself  does  not 
deteriorate.  But  with  you,  fashion  caused  the 
creation  of  wealth  which  was  only  wealth 
while  the  fashion  lasted,  and  as  soon  as  that 
changed  the  wealth  disappeared,  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  the  commodity  itself  lasted  in 
good  condition.  There  are,  of  course,  forms 
of  perishable  wealth  which  have  to  be  created 
only  to  be  destroyed,  such  as  food,  drink,  and 
all  those    commodities   which   satisfy  human 


Economic  Sophistries  Exposed     141 

desires  and  are  lost  in  the  consumption. 
Clothing  must  be  considered  in  this  class, 
although  it  has  a  longer  life  as  wealth  than 
the  other  forms.  In  any  system  where  wealth 
is  equally  divided,  consumption  and  production 
go  hand  in  hand.  In  a  system  where  wealth 
is  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  the  few,  the 
lack  of  money  in  the  hands  of  the  many 
checks  consumption,  and  this  reacts  on  pro- 
duction, so  that  since  the  stock  is  produced 
before  the  market  is  ready  for  it,  the  producer 
finds  on  opening  his  market  that  he  has  pro- 
duced more  than  he  can  sell.  He  calls  it 
overproduction.  The  many  want,  but  have 
no  money  to  buy  with.  The  key  to  the  situ- 
ation is  the  money  question,  every  time.  All 
of  your  panics  were  financial  panics  ;  all  of 
your  hard  times  were  due,  not  to  bad  harvests, 
but  to  bad  finance.  You  were  standing  on 
your  head  and  trying  to  look  pleasant.  Come 
this  way  and  see  the  other  department." 

We  went  into  another  room  and  saw  the 
first  processes  in  making  the  shoes,  the  cut- 
ting of  leather  and  sewing  of  the  uppers. 

"  Professor,"  said  I,  "  do  you  not  think  that 
it  is  unfair  to  give  to  a  man  that  simply  runs 
one  of  these  machines  as  much  money  as  you 
give  to  the  man  who  is  at  the  head  of  the  de- 


142  The  Great  Awakening 

partment  ?  And  do  not  the  heads  of  the 
departments  object  that  they  do  not  get  more 
in  proportion,  since  their  work  requires  more 
brains  than  the  other  work  does  ?  " 

"It  is  impossible  to  answer  your  question 
yes  or  no,  as  it  would  imply.  In  the  first 
place,  your  ideas  on  this  subject  were  formed 
in  a  civilization  where  labor  sold  itself  to  cap- 
ital and  was  subject  to  demand  and  supply^ 
and  where  money  was  so  scarce  and  so  neces- 
sary to  life  that  the  masses  were  constantly 
on  the  verge  of  poverty,  into  which  the  periodic 
hard  times  eventually  pushed  them.  Now, 
with  us  money  is  so  plentiful  and  so  equally 
divided  that  to  manage  a  business  takes  al- 
most no  skill  at  all.  To  make  it  clearer.  In 
your  time,  when  the  increase  in  money  de- 
pended on  the  quantity  of  one  commodity  — 
gold  —  in  existence,  the  increase  of  other  com- 
modities seeking  capitalization  and  the  increase 
of  population  caused  a  terrible  competition 
in  all  classes  outside  of  capitalists  or  land- 
owners. This  competition  was  so  sharp  that 
it  required  exceptional  brains  and  energy  at 
the  helm  of  the  business  to  capitalize  the 
stock,  that  is,  to  sell  goods  and  manage  the 
financial  part.  Therefore  some  proved  more 
suited  than  others  to  this,  and  consequently 


Economic  Sophistries  Exposed     143 

obtained  lucrative  positions.  Now,  with  us, 
as  I  have  told  you  before,  the  simple  act  of 
creating  is  sufficient  to  obtain  capitalization, 
our  money  increasing  with  our  wealth,  not 
with  our  gold  ;  it  therefore  takes  no  special 
skill  to  manage,  more  than  to  simply  produce. 
Also,  since  our  people  have  had  equal  advan- 
tages in  education,  they  are  as  capable  of 
managing  as  of  simply  producing.  Therefore  it 
is  customary  with  us  to  change  managers,  and 
the  settlement  of  this  question  is  left  entirely 
to  the  producers  themselves.  As  to  the  other 
matter. 

"  You  imply  that  you  are  astonished  that 
more  of  our  people  do  not  object  to  equal 
division,  since  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  that 
all  work  is  equally  hard.  That  also  implies  that 
you  would  be  astonished  if  people  did  not  ob- 
ject to  a  system  in  which  men  were  paid  while 
doing  nothing.  This  is  the  extreme  of  the 
case.  Now,  how  was  it  with  you  ?  Did  you 
not  know  of  thousands  that  lived  all  their 
lives  without  working  one  day  ?  You  lived  all 
your  life  in  the  extreme  of  this  system,  and 
yet  are  astonished  at  us  where  every  one 
works." 

"  But,  professor,  they  lived  on  the  stored- 
up  labor  of  others.     Their  capital,  which  was 


144  The  Great  Awakening 

nothing  but  stored-iip  labor,  was  given  them 
by  their  fathers,  and  it  was  to  the  fathers 
the  reward  of  abstinence.  Why  is  this  not 
just?" 

"  In  the  first  place,  you  cannot  store  up 
labor.  If  you  could  store  up  labor  in  capital, 
then  you  could  regain  it  without  any  more 
labor  being  put  in.  But  this  is  impossible. 
If  all  the  capital  in  the  world  were  left  to  itself, 
if  all  the  stored- up  human  labor  were  permitted 
to  produce,  it  would  never  produce  a  cent's 
worth  of  wealth  if  live  men  were  not  ready  to 
use  it." 

"  But  the  live  labor  only  unlocks  the  doors 
of  stored-up  labor." 

"  Nonsense  !  "  said  the  professor.  "  Let  us 
consider  one  moment.  Suppose  by  some 
method  of  labor  you  become  possessed  of 
$100,000.  That  represents,  does  it  not,  from 
your  point  of  view  a  certain  amount,  $100,000 
worth,  of  stored-up  labor,  no  more,  no  less  .-*  " 

"That  is  right,"  I  said. 

"Well,"  said  the  professor,  "  suppose  you 
invest  that  in  a  plant  and  business,  and  that 
at  the  end  of  the  first- year  your  gross  receipts 
have  been  say  $40,000,  your  expenditures 
$25,000  in  taxes,  lights,  shrinkage  on  the 
plant,  power,  and  wages.     Then  by  hiring  your 


Economic  Sophistries  Exposed     145 

laborers  you  have  been  able  to  unlock  the 
doors  of  stored-up  labor,  as  you  say,  to  the  ex- 
tent of  1^15,000.  Very  well.  This  goes  on, 
and  in  ten  years  your  profit  is  still  fifteen  per 
cent.,  but  in  ten  years  you  have  got  out  of 
the  $100,000  of  stored  up  labor  $1 50,000,  and 
you  still  own  the  plant.  Where  did  this  in- 
crease come  from  .-* ' ' 

"  Well,  in  ten  years  capital  will  increase  of 
itself.  If  let  alone,  some  forms  of  wealth,  or 
capital,  will  increase  and  grow  by  nature ;  and 
since  these  forms  are  exchangeable  for  all 
other  forms,  this  increase  is  certainly  a  justi- 
fication of  interest  and  profits." 

"  In  no  sense  is  it,"  said  the  professor.  "  I 
am  aware  that  an  economist  of  your  time,  in 
his  able  work  upon  a  land  tax,  attempts  to 
justify  the  claim  to  interest  and  profits  in  this 
manner.  He  casts  aside  the  example  of  the 
French  economist  Bastiat,  and  substitutes  one 
of  his  own,  in  which  he  states  that  if  the 
carpenter,  instead  of  having  as  his  capital  a 
plane,  had  had  some  seeds,  at  the  end  of  the 
year  he  would  have  got  back  not  only  some 
seeds,  but  would  have  had  some  fruit  also,  it 
being  a  growth  from  his  seeds  caused  by 
nature  —  an  increase  on  his  capital  for  which 
he  did  not  expend   labor.      The  able  writer 


146  The  Great  Awakening 

forthwith  draws  the  erroneous  conchision  that 
since  some  forms  of  wealth  increase  of  them- 
selves, and  since  they  are  exchangeable  for 
all  other  forms,  an  increase  in  all  other  forms 
must  be  and  is  justifiable. 

"  Here  is  the  error.  The  faculty  of  ex- 
changeability held  by  all  forms  of  wealth  does 
not,  as  he  implies,  make  the  characteristics  of 
all  forms  similar.  There  are  some  forms  of 
wealth  which  increase  without  labor  by  man 
being  performed  during  the  process  ;  the  labor 
is  performed  gratis  by  nature,  and  therefore 
all  holding  this  form  of  wealth  are  entitled  to 
this  increase,  since  their  taking  of  it  does  not 
decrease  the  store  of  any  one  else.  But  nature 
does  not  increase  all  forms  of  wealth,  so  that 
it  is  absurd  to  say  that  for  the  above  reason, 
where  labor  causes  the  increase,  it  just  as 
rightfully  belongs  to  the  so-called  owner  as 
it  does  when  nature  does  the  work.  In  the 
one  case,  human  labor  enters  as  a  controlling 
factor  and  destroys  completely  any  similarity 
between  the  two  phenomena  such  as  econo- 
mists try  to  show  through  the  interchange- 
ability  of  wealth.  In  your  day  it  was  firmly 
believed  that  the  capitalists  were  living  on 
stored-up  labor.  They  had  a  sort  of  inex- 
haustible purse,  and  although  anybody  in  his 


Economic  Sophistries  Exposed     147 

right  mind  must  have  -known  that  the  quan- 
tity of  labor  stored  up,  as  you  say,  was  a 
definite  one,  interest  and  profit  —  that  is,  the 
unlocked  streams  of  stored-up  labor  —  went  on 
forever.  This  was  a  sort  of  perpetual  motion 
machine,  made  expressly  for  the  capitalists 
and  used  for  their  own  benefit  —  the  only 
one,  I  believe,  that  ever  worked.  You  stated 
that  the  capital  your  father  got  was  a  reward 
of  abstinence.  Now  abstinence  is  the  last 
thing  to  be  rewarded.  Abstinence  means  re- 
duced consumption,  this  means  reduced  pro- 
duction ;  and,  in  any  civilization  where  the 
population  increases,  reduced  production 
means  poverty  in  the  masses  and  the  concen- 
tration of  wealth  in  the  hands  of  the  few. 

"  There  is  no  natural  justification  of  interest 
except  as  relates  to  those  few  cases  where 
nature  does  the  work,  as  with  seeds,  etc.  In- 
terest is  but  the  lesser  of  two  evils,  for  capital 
is  necessary  for  the  production  of  wealth  ;  and 
if  it  can  only  be  obtained  by  the  payment  of 
interest  or  by  force  and  bloodshed,  then  we 
can  easily  see  that  the  payment  of  interest  is 
the  lesser  evil.  Realizing  now  that  there  is 
a  vast  difference  between  a  benefit  and  the 
lesser  of  two  evils,  our  object  should  be  to 
bring  about  those  conditions  in  which  capital 


148  The  Great  Awakening 

may  be  obtained  without  the  existence  of 
these  two  evils,  and  this  can  only  be  done  by 
allowing  money  to  increase  as  wealth  does. 
But  to  return  to  the  question  of  equal  wages. 
Did  you  in  your  time  make  much  stir  because 
an  acquaintance  of  yours,  who  did  not  work 
nearly  as  hard  as  you,  got  as  much  salary  ? " 

"  That  depended,  professor,  on  whether  the 
size  of  his  salary  affected  mine  or  not." 

"  Exactly,"  said  my  friend.  "  If  you  were 
comfortably  off,  you  did  not  worry  much 
whether  your  friend  was  paid  more  or  less 
than  he  deserved  ;  it  was  only  when  it  was 
hard  to  get  a  living  that  the  size  of  his  salary 
made  a  difference  to  you,  especially  if  he  was 
paid  out  of  the  same  treasury.  With  us  all 
are  rich  in  corporal  and  mental  necessities 
and  luxuries,  and  we  do  not  worry  or  feel  badly 
over  the  imaginary  laziness  of  a  fellow  being." 

We  went  to  the  back  of  the  building  and 
saw  the  big  motor  drays  come  to  the  platform, 
load  up,  and  move  off.  Everything  was  done 
with  neatness  and  despatch,  and  with  but 
little  noise,  the  carriages  running  on  large 
pneumatic  tires. 

"  I  should  like  to  go  to  one  of  the  retail 
stores,"  I  said. 

"  Very  well,  we  will  take  the   automobile 


Economic  Sophistries  Exposed     149 

and  visit  one."  And  we  were  soon  rolling 
swiftly  along  the  avenue. 

"  Your  streets  are  so  beautiful  here,  pro- 
fessor, it  is  a  very  great  pleasure  to  ride  on 
them." 

"  Yes,  without  the  horse  and  with  pneu- 
matic tires  a  macadam  or  asphalt  road  requires 
but  little  care  to  keep  it  in  fine  condition. 
What  ruined  the  streets  in  your  time  was  the 
iron  shoes  of  the  horses  continually  pounding 
and  grinding,  and  the  narrow  iron  tire  sink- 
ing deep  where  there  was  improper  drain- 
age. Our  roads  are  built  beautifully  to  begin 
with,  and  afterwards  they  receive  but  little 
wear." 

"  In  building  your  roads,  professor,  there 
must  have  been  considerable  rough  and  dirty 
work  which  men  of  high  intellectual  calibre 
would  shrink  from  performing  ;  and  indeed,  I 
should  think  that  in  many  branches  of  labor 
the  work  must  have  been  of  this  kind.  How 
did  you  persuade  men  into  this  branch  if  you 
did  not  pay  more  .''  " 

"  In  the  first  place,  in  such  work  fewer 
working  hours  are  considered  a  day's  labor  ; 
and  in  the  second  place,  no  one  man  does  the 
same  work  for  his  lifetime.  The  different 
classes  or  grades  of  work  are  performed  by  all 


150  The  Great  Awakening 

men  at  different  ages.  A  man  of  high  intel- 
lectual capacity  does  not  with  us  object  to 
doing  work  which  in  your  day  was  relegated 
to  those  of  a  low  mental  status,  because  he 
gets  as  much  pay  as  any  one  else  does,  fewer 
hours,  and  his  position  is  not  permanent  in 
the  trade,  but  only  lasts  say  five  years,  while 
he  is  young  and  physically  suited  to  the  rough 
and  arduous  labors." 

"  But  how  is  the  change  effected  from  one 
position  to  another,  and  who  supports  him  be- 
tween times  ? " 

"  How  was  it  in  your  time  .'*  "  said  the  pro- 
fessor. "  A  man  often  changed  his  occupa- 
tion, did  he  not,  sometimes  because  he  had 
to,  and  sometimes  because  he  wanted  to.^ " 

"  Yes,  but  in  my  day  a  man  scarcely  dared 
to  leave  his  position  because  it  was  so  hard  to 
get  another." 

"  True,  thanks  to  the  scarcity  of  the  '  hon- 
est dollar,'  which  paralyzed  industry  and 
threw  thousands  out  of  work.  Now,  with  us, 
money  is  so  plentiful  and  satisfies  the  de- 
mands of  trade  so  fully  that  the  demand  for 
labor  is  always  greater  than  the  supply.  I 
have  never  in  my  lifetime  seen  any  day  in 
which  the  demand  for  labor  was  less  than  the 
supply  —  that  is,  there  never  was  a  time  when 


Economic  Sophistries  Exposed     151 

a  man  could  not  leave  his  position  and  secure 
another  easily.  Indeed,  I  cannot  see  how  it 
can  be  othen\dse  when  our  money  increases 
with  our  wealth,  our  object  being  to  in- 
crease production,  while  yours  was  to  hamper 
and  control  it.  The  protectionists  hampered 
it,  and  the  trusts  controlled  it.  This  followed 
as  a  matter  of  course,  since  you  were  all 
foolish  enough  to  hamper  the  increase  of 
money." 

"  But  how,  professor,  did  the  man  secure 
another  position  .?     Just  what  did  he  do  .?  " 

"Why,  he  went  around  to  the  different 
managers,  asking  for  a  job,  just  as  he  did  in 
your  time,  and  he  immediately  got  it ;  just  as 
in  your  time,  when  business  was  good  and 
healthy  —  which  really  did  occur  occasionally 
—  an  able  man  was  not  long  out  of  employ- 
ment." 

"  But  if  a  manager  gave  him  a  job,  tools  or 
a  machine  must  have  been  lent  him,  and  did 
not  the  owner  of  the  machine  exact  something 
for  the  use  of  it  ^     Was  this  not  profits  .? " 

"The  man  that  used  the  machine  was  the 
owner,  and  his  profit  was  simply  the  money 
he  received  from  the  labor  he  put  into  the 
machine— that  is,  if  he  worked  by  himself. 
If  he  worked  with  others,  his   share  was  the 


152  The  Great  Awakening 

same  as  all  the  others,  if  all  were  concerned 
in  the  manufacture  of  one  article." 

"But,  professor,  if  I  save  $1,000  and  in- 
vent a  new  machine,  am  I  not  entitled  to 
something  if  I  lend  it  and  thereby  increase 
the  production  of  commodities?" 

"  If  you  can  find  any  one  who  wants  to  bor- 
row and  is  willing  to  pay  for  the  privilege, 
then  that  is  a  private  affair ;  but  as  you  can 
get  no  patents,  other  machines  will  be  built, 
and  there  will  be  no  borrowers." 

"  But  it  would  take  a  lot  of  money  to  con- 
struct a  plant  to  manufacture  these  machines 
in  quantity." 

"True,  and  that  money  would  quickly  be 
raised  by  the  producers  themselves  by  contri- 
butions." 

"  But  what  would  be  the  incentive  to  con- 
tribute, since  after  the  plant  was  built  it  would 
not  belong  to  the  builders  unless  they  worked 
in  it  themselves  .''  " 

"  Let  us  compare  to-day  with  your  time. 
To  float  the  stock  of  such  a  company  as  you 
suggest,  what  was  necessary  .-'  Simply  a  be- 
lief that  the  plant  would  produce  wealth  and 
they  would  gain  thereby  in  their  dividends. 
Is  this  not  so  .''  " 

"Yes,"  I  said. 


Economic  Sophistries  Exposed      153 

"  Well,  it  is  the  same  now.  If  such  a  plant 
would  increase  the  wealth  of  the  nation,  the 
amount  of  money  issued  at  the  next  pay  day 
would  be  increased,  and  therefore  the  con- 
tributors would  gain  thereby,  although  they 
never  saw  or  used  the  plant  thereafter.  You 
must  remember  that  besides  getting  money 
for  his  labor,  every  laborer  receives  money 
from  the  government  periodically,  the  amount 
of  which  depends  on  the  increased  amount  of 
wealth  produced.  In  this  way  there  is  a  con- 
stant stimulus  to  the  increased  production  of 
wealth,  much  greater  than  that  caused  by  a 
patent  law  or  by  any  other  of  your  laws,  for 
the  protection  of  a  monopoly." 

"  But,  professor,  if  a  man  only  got  a  portion 
of  the  gain  which  he  caused,  the  rest  being 
distributed  to  every  other  person  in  the  coun- 
try, would  he  work  hard  to  increase  the 
wealth  —  would  that  not  act  as  a  brake  on  his 
energies  .-*  " 

"  I  see  you  are  not  familiar  with  a  some- 
what similar  system  which  existed  in  your 
time  —  I  refer  to  the  selling  of  goods  on 
commission.  By  giving  the  seller  a  percent- 
age of  his  sales,  his  energies  were  incited  to 
the  utmost.  The  difference  between  that 
system  and  ours  is  that,  in  your  system,  the 


154  The  Great  Awakening 

rest  went  as  profits,  while  with  us  it  is  divided 
amongst  the  rest  of  the  workers  ;  so  that  while 
every  man  gets  but  a  per  cent,  of  the  result 
of  his  labor  along  this  line,  he  also  gets  a  per 
cent,  of  every  other  one's. 

"  It  must,  of  course,  be  evident  to  you  that 
if  we  allowed  these  contributors  to  own  this 
plant  and  receive  something  as  profit  on  it, 
then  those  who  use  it  would  constantly  have 
to  give  some  of  their  labor  to  those  who  own 
it,  and  in  a  short  time  we  should  arrive  at  a 
point  where  a  man  could  live  by  lending. 
This  we  do  not  intend  to  do,  so  we  divide 
whatever  increase  there  may  come  from  this 
increase  of  wealth  equally,  and  stand  fast  on 
the  principle  that  the  user,  and  only  the  user, 
of  capital  is  its  owner,  the  only  one  entitled 
to  the  direct  return  from  its  use.  This  is  an 
underlying  principle  with  us,  and  is  one  of 
the  bulwarks  of  our  democracy.  This  equal 
division  of  increasing  wealth  causes  us  all  to 
grow  rich  together,  and  now  there  are  none 
of  us  who  are  poorer  off  in  material  comforts 
and  luxuries  than  a  man  worth  a  million  dollars 
was  in  }'our  day,  and  still  we  all  ha\'e  to  work. 
This  seems  ridiculous  to  you,  does  it  not .-'  To 
be  worth  a  million  and  still  have  to  work  ! 
If  you  will   think  of  it   a  minute,    you  will 


Economic  Sophistries  Exposed     155 

understand  it.  To  live  without  working,  you 
must  lend  and  exact  payment  from  the  bor- 
rower. Now,  if  everybody  in  the  country  was 
worth  a  million  dollars,  to  whom  would  you 
lend  ?  To  live  without  working,  there  must 
be  a  lender  and  a  borrower,  rich  and  poor. 
In  a  country  where  all  are  equally  poor  or 
equally  rich  such  conditions  cannot  exist.  So 
with  us  interest  has  died  a  natural  death,  and 
the  cases  where  there  is  a  payment  for  a  loan 
are  few  and  far  between.  This  is  entirely 
the  result  of  our  scientific  scheme  of  finance 
and  the  equal  distribution  of  money." 


CHAPTER   XI. 

I    AM    INTERESTED     IN    THE    SALE    OF 
COMMODITIES. 

At  this  point  in  the  conversation  we  rode 
up  to  the  store.  This  building  was  quite 
large,  although  only  one  story  high,  and  con- 
tained counters  with  the  goods  on  exhibition 
and  pleasant  clerks  behind  them,  ready  and 
willing  to  help  in  a  purchase.  I  learned  here 
that  the  goods  from  each  factory  were  marked, 
so  that,  when  sold,  the  money  was  credited 
correctly,  and  at  night,  when  the  proper 
amount  was  deducted  as  charges  —  that  is, 
the  wages  of  the  clerks,  etc.  —  the  remainder 
was  handed  over  to  the  manager  of  the  fac- 
tory to  be  distributed  among  the  workers.  I 
do  not  mean  to  say  the  money  changed  hands 
every  night  ;  I  believe  that  happened  once  a 
month.  It  was  wholly  a  matter  of  con- 
venience. 

Outside  of  the  fact  that  it  was  only  one 
story  high,  there  was  nothing  novel  here. 
The  light  came  in  a  flood  through  the  roof, 

IS6 


Modern  Department  Stores        157 

which  was  of  glass  in  steel  frames,  the  glass 
being  of  a  peculiar  toughness  quite  different 
from  any  I  was  familiar  with.  There  were 
pneumatic  and  cable  cash  carriers,  and  the 
store  in  many  ways  resembled  those  I  had 
seen  in  my  own  country,  except  that,  although 
it  was  considered  a  large  one  and  well  stocked, 
it  had  but  few  things  compared  with  some  of 
the  retail  monsters  I  had  been  used  to. 
There  were  also  but  few  people  in  it.  The 
cause  of  this  was  that,  since  no  fashions  existed, 
the  number  of  commodities  was  not  one  half 
of  what  used  to  exist ;  therefore,  there  were 
almost  no  trinkets  or  novelties  and  only  few 
designs  in  the  various  goods.  I  remembered 
the  professor  on  finance,  and  said  to  myself, 
"  In  my  day  money  was  so  scarce  that  com- 
modity dealers  tried  in  every  possible  way 
to  attract  the  eye  and  thus  the  pocketbook : 
hence  novelties,  hence  jewelry,  hence  trinkets, 
hence  the  great  variety  of  designs  in  every- 
thing. Now  money  is  plentiful  these  things 
have  disappeared  :  cause  and  effect."  I  was 
beginning  to  understand  things,  and  to  real- 
ize what  uncivilized  brutes  we  were  in  the 
nineteenth  century. 

I  wondered  if  the  lack  of  these  things  was 
felt.     No,  of  course  not ;  for,  being  bom  with- 


158  The  Great  Awakening 

out  them,  no  one  realized  any  loss.  I  never 
cried  over  the  lost  arts  of  Egypt,  and  I  doubt 
if  any  other  sane  man  did. 

There  was  one  point  on  which  I  wanted  a 
little  information,  and  I  put  the  question  to 
the  professor. 

"  With  your  system,  professor,  you  have  no 
standard  commodity.  Now,  with  no  stand- 
ard, how  does  a  man  know  how  much  to  ask 
for  a  suit  of  clothes  .''  Would  he  not  be  all  at 
sea  about  the  question  of  market  value  ?  " 

"  Well,  let  us  examine  the  case.  Let  us 
suppose  a  man  with  no  knowledge  of  our 
financial  scheme  to  be  placed  in  this  region 
with  some  clothing  which  he  wants  to  sell. 
Suppose  he  gets  permission  by  some  means 
to  open  a  store,  displays  his  clothing,  and  then 
is  at  a  loss  to  know  the  market  value  of  his 
suits,  for  we  tell  him  we  have  no  standard 
like  gold,  and  that  our  government  issues 
paper  money  with  promises  to  pay  no  com- 
modity whatever,  but  which  simply  is  ex- 
changeable for  any  or  all  commodities.  He 
sees  a  one-dollar  bill,  and  as  it  does  not  mean 
anything  to  him  —  he  being  a  barbarian  and 
coming  from  a  country  where  they  believe  in 
the,  gold  standard  —  how  is  he  to  tell  what 
value  his  suits  hold  in  this  market  ? " 


Modern  Department  Stores       159 

"He  cannot,  professor;  that  is  just  my 
point." 

"Very  good,"  said  my  friend.  "One 
more  question.  I  want  you  to  tell  me  what 
price  he  will  ask  for  them." 

"  How  can  he  determine  that .''  "  I  said. 

"He  has  got  to,  as  he  has  got  to  sell  his 
goods." 

"  I  don't  see  how  he  can,  unless  he  asks 
some  one  who  keeps  a  clothing  store  near 
him." 

"That  is  not  allowable  in  this  supposed 
case." 

"Then  he  will  have  to  shut  up  shop," 
said  I. 

"  Not  at  all,"  said  the  professor.  "  Listen. 
He  charges  one  dollar  per  suit  and  opens  the 
door.  Crowds  rush  in  to  buy.  Having  so 
many  purchasers,  he  raises  the  price  on  his 
suits  to  two  dollars,  to  three,  to  four,  until 
finally  he  strikes  a  point  where  he  can  sell  his 
suits,  pay  his  bills,  and  be  rewarded  for  his 
labor.  He  then  has  found  the  market  value 
of  his  suits  in  dollars  ;  and  a  standard,  gold  or 
silver,  has  no  more  to  do  with  market  value 
than  the  moon  has." 

"  The  quantity  of  money  in  existence,  then, 
is  the  determining  factor  in  market  value, 
professor  .'* " 


i6o  The  Great  Awakening 

"  Not  the  quantity  in  existence,  but  the 
quantity  offered  to  buy.  There  is  a  differ- 
ence. If  I  am  a  capitahst  with  $100,000  to 
my  credit,  and  walk  into  a  stock  exchange 
such  as  used  to  exist  in  your  time,  it  makes  a 
vast  difference  in  market  vahies  whether  I 
determine  to  use  that  money  or  to  let  the 
market  alone.  In  both  cases  the  money  is  in 
existence  ;  but  in  the  case  where  I  do  not  use  it, 
it  does  not  change  market  values  in  the  least, 
while  if  I  wish  I  can  bull  or  bear  the  mar- 
ket to  a  considerable  extent  by  its  use.  The 
amount  of  money  ready  to  purchase  can  never 
be  exactly  determined.  It,  however,  fluctu- 
ates much,  while  the  amount  of  money  in  ex- 
istence remains  the  same. 

"In  1873  the  amount  of  legal  tender 
money  in  your  country  was  much  reduced, 
thereby  reducing  this  other  unknown  quantity, 
the  money  ready  to  purchase,  since  it  must 
always  be  less  than  the  whole  amount  of  all 
money.  All  other  market  values,  therefore, 
fell,  not  all  at  once  nor  in  the  same  propor- 
tion, of  course ;  but  they  fell  at  practically  the 
same  time. 

"  The  amount  of  money  ready  to  purchase 
is  the  determining  factor  in  values,  don't  for- 
get that.      Some  economists,  when    arguing 


Modern  Department  Stores       i6i 

against  the  quantitive  theory  of  money,  lose 
sight  of  the  fact  that  the  amount  of  money 
ready  to  purchase  is  never  coincident  with  the 
amount  in  circulation  ;  therefore  their  argu- 
ments, based  on  figures  relating  to  the  amount 
in  circulation,  are  sometimes  wrong,  being 
founded  on  wrong  premises." 

"  If  this  is  an  unknown  quantity,  professor, 
how  can  it  be  used  intelligently  in  economic 
science?" 

*'  In  this  way.  We  can  find  out  what  ac- 
tion tends  to  increase  or  decrease  it,  and  we 
can  find  out  whether  it  is  better  for  the 
masses  to  increase  or  decrease  it.  To  in- 
crease the  amount  of  money  ready  to  pur- 
chase is  to  increase  the  number  of  purchases, 
or,  in  other  words,  to  increase  consumption. 
This  in  its  turn  increases  production,  which 
shows  us  that  the  most  good  comes  from  in- 
creasing this  unknown  quantity.  A  protec- 
tionist, now,  would  argue  the  other  way  ;  but 
then,  a  protectionist  wants  to  produce  as  little 
as  possible  and  eat  most  of  it  himself.  Now, 
then,  if  to  increase  this  amount  is  good,  to 
decrease  it  is  bad.  We  know  that  by  decreas- 
ing the  amount  of  money  issued,  you  make 
the  dollar  buy  more,  but  if  it  buys  more,  it 
is    harder  to    get,  and  if  it  is    harder  to   get, 


1 62  The  Great  Awakening 

it  is  slowly  spent ;  and  when  we  say  that 
money  is  slowly  spent,  we  know  imme- 
diately that  the  amount  of  money  ready 
to  purchase  is  small,  we  know  that  consump- 
tion is  checked,  we  know  that  some  people 
have  nothing  to  eat,  that  poverty  and  starva- 
tion are  everywhere  seen,  that  production  is 
stopped,  and  that  business  dies  ! 

"  Good  heavens !  When  I  look  back  at 
your  generation,  I  stop  and  ponder  on  the 
patience  of  men.  It  is  a  virtue,  patience,  and 
the  people  of  the  nineteenth  century  had  it  in 
generous  quantities,  else  had  they  risen  and 
struck  the  oppressor  from  the  earth.  You 
have  the  'honest  dollar'  to  thank  for  that." 

I  felt  quite  satisfied  with  what  the  pro- 
fessor had  said,  and  I  knew  it  would  be  food 
for  reflection. 

It  was  soon  after  this  that  we  left  the  store 
and  rode  toward  home.  While  riding  along,  I 
had  the  opportunity  to  watch  many  flying  ma- 
chines overhead,  and  I  took  occasion  to  ques- 
tion the  professor  concerning  the  uses  of 
flying  machines,  particularly  as  a  means  of 
defense. 

"  Professor,"  said  I,  "  tell  me  just  what  part 
the  flying  machine  took  in  the  formation  of 
the  Money  Republic  and  why  it  was  so  im- 
portant?" 


Modern  Department  Stores       163 

"Well,  to  explain  the  importance  of  that 
invention,  I  must  go  back  and  tell  you  a  little 
about  laws  and  their  enforcement.  Before 
laws  existed  there  was  unwritten  legislation, 
custom,  you  know,  that  is  what  I  mean  by  un- 
written legislation,  and  that  legislation  existed 
with  no  force  behind  it.  It  existed  from  a 
sort  of  passive  acquiescence  from  all  con- 
cerned. So  it  naturally  followed  that  any 
written  legislation  which  conformed  to  the 
unwritten  was  the  most  easily  enforced.  Now, 
to  make  a  law  is  only  half  an  action,  to  en- 
force it  is  just  as  necessary  ;  so  we  see  that, 
as  the  material  means  of  enforcing  it  grow,  a 
law  may  diverge  from  custom  more  and  more 
with  safety.  The  term  *  custom  '  is  applied  to 
certain  conditions  which  have  had  their  origin 
in  the  past ;  and,  although  at  a  remote  time 
they  may  have  been  just,  they  cannot  possibly 
hold  that  position  as  the  race  grows  older, 
but  must  constantly  change  as  ideas  change. 
What  does  for  a  child  will  not  do  for  an  adult, 
and  it  is  the  same  with  regard  to  the  progress 
of  the  human  race. 

"  Now  the  inventions  of  gunpowder,  the 
printing  press,  the  steam  engine,  the  com- 
pass, all  helped  to  make  material  conditions 
wherein  laws  could  be  more  rigidly  enforced ; 


164  The  Great  Awakening 

it  therefore  follows  that  with  these  conditions 
laws  can  be  made,  and  generally  will  be  made, 
which  get  their  origin  from  a  moral  concep- 
tion of  right  and  wrong,  and  have  nothing  to 
do  with  custom  ;  but  that  law  which  governs 
the  issue  of  a  circulating  medium  is  the  hard- 
est possible  one  to  enforce,  since  trade  is  a 
primary  action  in  human  existence  and  took 
place  before  governments  existed.  We,  there- 
fore, see  that  the  written  legislation  upon 
money  is  simply  a  record  of  the  unwritten 
legislation  before  it.  Custom  declared  one  com- 
modity to  be  money  ;  legislation,  coming  after, 
declared  the  same  thing  —  even  the  wisest 
of  law  makers  well  knowing  that  to  declare 
anything  else  would  be  foolish,  since  they 
could  not  enforce  it.  No  man  could  justly 
claim,  therefore,  that  because  a  law  existed  in 
the  jDast,  it  was  just  in  the  present.  It  existed 
then  simply  because  it  could  be  enforced 
and  was  suited  to  those  times. 

"  Of  course  I  know  there  were  many  acts 
of  legislation  which  were  called  laws  but  were 
not  enforced.  These  I  do  not  consider  laws 
in  the  true  sense.  Only  those  rules  are  laws 
which  exert  an  influence  in  moulding  society. 
Now  let  us  come  to  the  flying  machine.  In 
large  countries,  where  the  population  is  small, 


Modern  Department  Stores        165 

it  is  naturally  spread  out  over  the  land,  and 
farming  or  grazing  is  the  chief  occupation.  A 
farmer  is  near  the  man  he  trades  with,  but  far 
from  the  seat  of  legislation,  and  it  therefore 
follows  that  the  rules  governing  his  trading  are 
such  as  come  from  custom.  If,  however,  it 
could  be  possible  for  some  one  from  the  seat 
of  government  to  get  to  the  farmer  at  a 
moment's  notice,  and  do  this  with  little 
trouble  and  expense,  it  would  in  reality  bring 
the  seat  of  government  as  near  to  the  farmer 
as  the  trader  is.  This  would  mean  that  laws 
could  then  be  made  from  the  dictates  of 
reason  and  not  from  custom,  since  they  could 
be  as  easily  enforced  as  unwritten  legislation 
ordinarily  can.  Now,  when  our  little  army  of 
emigrants  went  to  Africa,  they  proceeded  to 
fence  in  their  country,  not  with  such  absurd 
things  as  custom  houses,  but  with  police 
stations.  They  owned,  either  by  purchase  or 
grant,  a  plot  of  ground  one  hundred  miles 
square,  and  at  intervals  of  ten  miles  they  built 
raised  platforms,  fifty  feet  square  and  fifty  feet 
high,  on  the  border  of  this  republic.  Later 
they  also  built  them  inside,  so  that  they 
finally  had  one  hundred  of  these  stations  in 
their  country.  These  platforms  were  made 
first  of  wood,  but  afterwards  of  steel,  and  all 


1 66  The  Great  Awakening 

were  open  underneath.  At  the  top  there 
was  a  neat  arrangement  of  sails  on  rods  fixed 
so  that  on  occasion  they  could  be  thrown  into 
a  horizontal  position  by  moving  a  large  lever, 
thus  showing  the  sails  to  any  patrolman 
above.  This  was  a  signal,  and  the  flyer 
immediately  descended  to  see  what  was  the 
trouble. 

"  In  your  day  one  went  to  a  police  station 
and  complained  ;  it  was  the  same  with  this 
republic,  except  that,  no  matter  how  far  from 
the  seat  of  government  one  lived,  his  com- 
plaint was  never  unanswered,  for  wherever  he 
lived,  he  was  always  near  a  police  station. 
Of  course,  with  this  condition  of  affairs  laws 
created  in  Congress  were  felt  by  every  one 
equally,  and  this  republic  was  the  first  to 
have  laws  based  on  common  sense  and  not  on 
custom.  Each  station  had  an  elevator  to 
raise  flying  machines,  and  stairs  to  reach  the 
top.  Each  district  kept  constantly  on  watch 
a  man  whose  duty  it  was  to  patrol  the  skies 
above  his  station.  Every  man  was  subject  to 
the  duty,  all  took  turns  at  it,  and  all  were 
paid  out  of  the  treasury.  There  were,  there- 
fore, one  hundred  patrolmen  in  the  skies,  con- 
stantly guarding  the  nation.  These  men 
soared  in  circles  and  kept  a  watch  not  only  on 


Modern  Department  Stores        167 

their  own  station,  but  also  on  the  patrolmen 
next  them. 

"  Of  course  a  single  patrolman  was  not 
much  of  a  power,  but  if  he  disappeared  from 
the  skies  his  next  door  neighbor  started  to 
find  where  he  had  gone,  and  it  was  '  follow  the 
leader '  until  all  of  the  hundred  put  in  an  ap- 
pearance. Also,  if  the  people  near  one  station 
saw  that  their  patrolman  had  disappeared  and 
that  no  one  else  had  taken  his  place,  they 
sent  up  another  man  to  do  duty  until  the 
trouble  should  be  settled.  In  this  way  it  was 
possible  to  mass  any  quantity  of  men  at  any 
point  in  an  incredibly  short  space  of  time,  and 
this  with  no  railroads  or  telegraph  lines. 

"  Perhaps  it  will  appear  simpler  to  you  if  I 
compare  it  to  the  action  of  vultures  when  one 
discovers  carrion.  These  birds  patrolled  the 
skies  as  we  do  now,  and  when  one  discovered 
prey  and  dropped,  the  others  from  all  parts  of 
the  sky  came  quickly  after  him.  If  he  found 
he  could  not  get  at  the  prey,  he  rose  again  ; 
and  this  was  a  signal  that  a  false  alarm  had 
been  given,  and  the  birds  went  back  to  their 
respective  positions.  If,  however,  the  coast 
was  clear  the  birds  quickly  gathered  from  all 
quarters.  This  method  of  protection  was  the 
means  of  saving  the  republic  from  many  inva- 


1 68  The  Great  Awakening 

sions  sent  by  its  enemies,  who  looked  upon 
the  growth  of  such  radical  ideas  with  extreme 
disfavor,  as  tending  to  overturn  the  old  sys- 
tem. Verily,  our  mental  and  social  conditions 
are  dependent  on  our  inventors." 


CHAPTER  XII. 

NINETEENTH  CENTURY  THEORIES  IN  PRACTICE. 

When  we  reached  home  and  had  put  up 
the  carriage,  the  professor  said,  "  Come  into 
the  library,  and  I  will  read  you  a  short  history 
of  one  of  the  eastern  settlements." 

I  walked  into  that  room  and  settled  myself 
in  a  comfortable  chair,  while  the  professor 
took  from  the  shelves  a  book  and  picked  out 
the  part  he  wished  to  read  to  me.  He  then 
sat  down  and  said,  "  This  is  about  the  town 
called  Harwich.  It  was  the  most  eastern 
of  all  the  police  stations,  and  formed  the 
nucleus  of  a  gathering  of  fifty  or  sixty 
families.  In  the  immediate  neighborhood  the 
soil  was  very  rich  and  well  suited  to  farming, 
so  that  naturally  that  industry  flourished  first. 
Now  let  me  read  to  you. 

"  '  This  station  has  a  local  government  en- 
tirely its  own  and  entirely  distinct  from  the 
other  stations.  It  is  modelled  after  the  town 
meeting  of  our  times,' — this  man  is  an 
169 


170  The  Great  Awakening 

American,  writing  before  the  Chaotic  Era,  you 
know  —  '  and  the  laws  made  take  effect  upon 
all  who  belong  to  this  station.  Any  man 
whose  name  is  on  the  list  of  those  to  whom 
money  is  to  be  issued  comes  under  the  juris- 
diction of  these  laws  ;  but  there  is  a  limit  to 
their  power,  as  no  station  can  make  laws  regu- 
lating the  issuance  of  money,  except  so  far  as 
its  own  citizens  are  concerned.  When  the 
wealth  has  been  increased,  and  the  head  of  the 
government  is  notified  to  what  extent,  money 
is  issued  to  the  different  stations  ;  and  if  there 
are  people  who  have  shown  a  determination 
not  to  work,  but  simply  to  live  on  this  issuance 
of  money,  they  are  ostracised,  their  names 
are  struck  off  the  lists,  and  they  therefore 
have  by  their  own  action  injured  themselves. 
This  is  done  by  a  three- fourths  registered 
vote  in  the  town  meeting,  the  defendant  hav- 
ing previously  been  heard.  Also  no  one 
station  can  live  on  the  money  issued  or  the 
wealth  created  at  other  stations,  since  that 
would  decrease  the  amount  of  money  the  other 
stations  received  and  would  lead  to  an  inves- 
tigation. Of  course,  if  disease  or  fire  or  other 
natural  agencies  are  the  cause  of  the  decrease 
in  wealth  at  any  one  station,  then,  upon  in- 
vestigation, the  citizens  would   be  relieved  of 


Theories  in  Operation  171 

all  blame,  and  the  condition  would  be  accepted. 
Also,  if  one  station  by  its  locality  is  richer,  it 
receives  no  more  money,  proportionally,  since 
the  richness  is  natm'e's  not  man's. 

"  '  The  little  station  of  Harwich  for  the 
first  few  years  of  its  growth  had  a  very  peace- 
ful time.  The  country  had  been  cleared  of 
savages  and  wild  beasts,  and,  with  the  patrol- 
men above,  the  citizens  knew  they  had  nothing 
to  fear  from  a  surprise.  There  are  a  great 
many  users  of  land  here,  but  no  owners,  in 
the  sense  we  mean.  The  price  of  all  things 
put  up  for  sale  is  regulated,  as  it  is  with  us, 
by  the  ratio  between  the  quantity  of  money 
offered  to  purchase  and  the  supply  of  salable 
goods.  No  matter  what  unit  is  used,  the 
price  of  any  commodity  for  which  money  is 
given  must  be  regulated  by  this  ratio.  All  of 
our  trading  is  simply  barter,  a  barter  of  com- 
modities for  money,  or  money  for  commodities. 
When  the  different  citizens  make  in  its  en- 
tirety any  commodity,  their  remuneration  is 
the  quantity  of  money  they  can  get. 

"  '  This  condition  of  affairs  existed  at  first, 
but  afterwards,  when  industry  was  specialized, 
a  national  law  stepped  in  and  declared  that 
"  whatever  is  the  quantity  of  money  received 
by  sale  of  such  goods  or   commodities   as   are 


172  The  Great  Awakening 

the  result  of  the  co-operation  of  different 
labors  or  exertions,  that  quantity  shall  have 
equal  division  amongst  all  concerned  in  the 
manufacture  of  said  commodity."  This  law 
is  based  upon  the  belief,  strongly  held  by  the 
people  of  this  nation,  that  the  mental  capacity 
of  any  man  is  dependent  upon  his  environ- 
ment and  that  of  his  ancestors  handed  down 
by  heredity ;  they  believe  that  by  starting 
and  keeping  money  equally  divided,  the  great 
difference  of  capacities  will,  in  the  course  of 
three  or  four  generations,  disappear.  At  the 
present  writing  it  is  difficult  to  predict  whether 
in  the  long  run  the  action  of  this  law  will  be 
as  it  is  presumed.  We  can  see,  however,  the 
result  of  issuing  money  on  increased  wealth 
and  dividing  it  equally,  for  the  growth  of  this 
village  is  unexampled  in  the  history  of  the 
world,  except  perhaps  by  the  other  villages  in 
the  republic.  This  is  not  socialism.  Socialism 
is  a  kind  of  protectionism.  It  has  for  its 
object  the  controlling  and  hampering  of  the 
growth  of  industry,  in  order  to  keep  the  results 
more  equally  divided ;  but  as  the  control  is  by 
the  State  and  the  State  represents  a  few  men, 
only  nominally  elected  by  the  many,  it  fol- 
lows that  socialism  is  the  formation  of  a  tre- 
mendous   trust,  the  managers  of  which  are 


Theories  in  Operation  173 

elected  by  the  people  and  are  supposed  to 
govern  in  their  interests.  But  we  find  in  the 
history  of  the  world  that  to  delegate  to  one 
man  the  control  of  interests  is  to  tempt  him 
to  satisfy  his  own,  and  not  the  people's  wishes. 

" '  This  is  not  anarchy,  for  its  primary 
national  laws  are  enforced  much  more  rigidly 
than  with  us.  It  is,  however,  more  anarchy 
than  socialism,  since  it  must  tend  to  develop 
the  individual  to  the  fullest  extent,  and 
leaves  industry  to  be  controlled  by  no  one. 

"Tn  our  country  it  matters  little  to  us 
whether  a  man  in  another  city  fails  or  not; 
but  if  our  government  were  to  issue  money  on 
increasing  wealth,  we  would  be  hurt  by  a 
failure,  no  matter  in  what  part  of  the  country, 
and  would  therefore  take  a  vital  interest  in 
one  another's  affairs.  By  simply  changing 
the  financial  scheme,  we  would  all  become 
stockholders  in  every  business  in  the  com- 
munity. When  the  village  of  Harwich 
became  older,  there  were  of  course  men  who 
had  saved  money  and  men  who  had  constantly 
lived  up  to  their  incomes.  One  of  the  men 
who  had  hoarded  proposed  an  amendment  in 
which  the  money  issued  should  be  distributed, 
not  equally,  but  according  to  the  quantity  of 
money  each  one  had  saved.     Of  course  we 


174  The  Great  Awakening- 

can  see  his  motive.  Being  of  a  miserly  dispo- 
sition, he  wanted  to  increase  his  hoard.  The 
discussion  was  carried  on  in  the  town  hall. 
Each  of  these  villages  sent  representatives  to 
Congress,  and  the  town  vote  on  this  amend- 
ment was  simply  to  determine  whether  the 
representatives  from  this  district  should  ad- 
vocate the  amendment  in  Congress  or  not. 
There  was  a  tremendous  vote  against  the 
amendment,  the  ablest  men  claiming  that  to 
issue  to  those  who  had  would  bring  about 
class  distinctions  —  a  thing  the  government  had 
pledged  itself  to  prevent  at  all  costs.  Money 
issued  in  such  a  way  would  not  be  in  active 
circulation,  since  there  would  be  a  constantly 
growing  hoard  under  the  control  of  a  few 
misers,  which  would  force  concentration  of 
population,  because  to  get  money  every  citizen 
would  have  to  go  where  the  misers  were.  It 
appears  this  is  the  only  case  on  record  where 
there  was  an  organized  opposition  to  the  con- 
stitution in  this  village. 

"  '  In  another  there  had  been  some  opposi- 
tion to  equal  division  of  wages,  but  it  had  no 
strength  ;  for  the  people  saw  that  of  the  total 
number  of  men  at  work,  one  man's  labor  was 
just  as  valuable  as  another's.  This  may  seem 
strange  to  my  readers,  but  I  think  I  can  ex- 


Theories  in  Operation  175 

plain  the  ground  they  stood  on.  In  the  first 
place,  every  commodity  which  exists  where 
trade  does  has  three  values — a  utility  value, 
more  properly  called  worth,  a  labor  value,  and 
a  market  value.  The  first  is  an  intrinsic  one, 
depending  upon  the  physical  properties  of  the 
commodity  ;  the  second  depends  on  the  amount 
of  labor  necessary  to  produce  the  commodity  ; 
the  third  is  an  artificial  one,  depending  upon 
the  effective  demand  for  and  supply  of  the 
commodity.  Now  the  economists  over  the 
way,  in  the  Money  Republic,  claim  that  labor 
has  two  values.  They  claim  that  each  laborer, 
no  matter  what  he  does,  is  as  necessary  as 
any  other,  and  therefore  all  should  be  rewarded 
equally.  They  further  state  that  the  value 
we  attach  to  labor  is  the  market  value,  that  is, 
we  give  labor  that  is  performed  by  the  great- 
est number  of  men  the  least  reward,  and  vice 
versa.  Now,  there  are  certain  kinds  of  labor 
that  require  less  brain  work  than  other  kinds  ; 
and  since  our  scheme  of  finance  is  constantly 
causing  men  to  be  born  into  poverty  —  giving 
them,  therefore,  practically  no  brain  develop- 
ment —  it  follows  that  these  lower  grades  of 
labor  must  be  performed  by  the  masses,  and 
since  the  supply  of  such  is  large,  the  wages 
are  low ;  but  to  make  a  man  who  is  already 


176  The  Great  Awakening 

poor,  labor  where  he  gets  the  least  reward  is 
to  constantly  increase  the  class  distinctions,  so 
that  the  next  child  born  is  still  poorer  in  both 
environment  and  heredity. 

"  '  Now,  the  economists  claim  that  to  bring 
up  a  child  in  poverty  because  its  father  was 
poor  is  morally  as  unjust  as  to  bring  up  a 
child  a  slave  because  its  father  was  one,  or  to 
bring  it  up  a  criminal  because  of  its  father's 
tendencies.  The  two  ways  of  preventing  this 
are,  first,  the  separation  of  the  child  from  the 
parents,  or,  second,  the  constant  equal  divi- 
sion of  money,  so  that  no  child  can  be  born 
in  poverty.  The  first  way  was  not  counte- 
nanced, as  it  was  recognized  that  to  interfere 
with  the  individual  family  relations  was  ruin- 
ous to  the  nation.  The  second  way  formed 
the  basis  of  their  issuance  of  money.  Their 
best  statesmen  acknowledge  that  at  first  the 
scheme  would  seem  unjust,  but  they  claim  — 
and  history  backs  them  up  —  that,  with  money 
divided  equally,  all  would  have  to  work,  and 
with  all  working,  the  wealth  produced  would 
be  so  great  that  the  hours  of  work  would  be 
fewer,  and  with  less  work  comes  more  leisure  ; 
and  when  all  have  some  leisure  and  have 
some  labor  to  perform,  except,  of  course,  the 
aged,  then  differences  in  mental  capacity  will 


Theories  in  Operation  177 

disappear.  If  we  look  at  the  town  of  Har- 
wich now,  we  shall  see  that  wealth  has  in- 
creased enormously,  and  still  we  find  no  vast 
differences  in  mental  development,  such  as  are 
evident  in  this  country.  The  bricklayers, 
the  stonecutters,  the  carpenters,  the  labor- 
ers, are  not  in  these  trades  because  they  are 
not  capable  of  doing  anything  requiring  more 
brain  work  ;  they  are  the  equals  of  any  other 
men,  having  had  practically  the  same  environ- 
ment and  education,  but  they  recognize  that 
this  work  must  be  done,  and  the  lot  falls  to 
them,  either  from  choice  or  from  the  fact  that, 
by  going  into  these  trades,  they  can  increase 
the  total  wealth  quicker  than  by  doing  any- 
thing else.  A  very  pretty  little  phenomenon 
shows  itself  here.  Those  trades  in  which 
strength  is  required  are  always  carried  on  by 
the  strongest  men.  There  is  no  law  to  this 
effect,  but  everybody  recognizes  that  if  a 
weak  man  works  in  a  trade  requiring  strength, 
he  will  not  be  able  to  produce  as  much  as  the 
strong  man  would  in  his  place  ;  therefore  the 
weak  man  will  be  anxious  to  change  and  the 
strong  man  will  also,  for  to  each  it  will  mean 
an  increased  amount  of  money.  The  result 
of  this  is  that  the  different  grades  of  work 
gradually  become  fixed,  not  on  different  men. 


178  The  Great  Awakening 

as  with  us,  but  on  different  ages  of  men,  so 
that  the  young  and  strong  do  the  heavy  work, 
the  okler  the  Hght  work,  and  the  aged  no 
work.  The  cause  of  this  is  not  a  network  of 
laws,  but  it  is  the  direct  result  of  issuing 
periodically  a  sum  of  money  based  upon  the 
increased  wealth,  of  dividing  this  money 
equally,  and  of  causing  all  labor  to  be  paid 
equally. 

"  '  In  our  day  the  stockholders  of  any  con- 
cern want  as  president  a  man  who  is  fitted  in 
every  way  for  the  position.  In  the  Money 
Republic  the  stockholders  of  the  nation  (that 
is,  all  the  people)  want  every  position  to  be 
filled  by  the  man  who,  in  that  position,  is  cap- 
able of  producing  the  most  wealth.' 

"  You  see,"  said  the  professor,  "  this  writer 
covers  the  interesting  points  very  well." 

"  But,  professor,  there  is  one  point  he  does 
not  touch  on.  If  there  were  colonies  on 
either  side  of  this  republic,  and  these  colonies 
had  the  gold  standard,  was  there  not  a  great 
deal  of  trouble  in  settling  balances  .-•  " 

"  Trouble  ?    Of  what  kind  > " 

"Why,  if  the  balance  of  trade  was  un- 
favorable, it  was  necessary  that  gold  should 
move  from  the  republic  to  the  colonies.  Now 
where  would  the  republic  get  the  gold?" 


Theories  in  Operation  179 

"Why,  wherever  it  could  be  found.  It 
would  be  bought  with  commodities  as  it  was 
in  your  time.  Trading  is  between  individuals, 
not  nations,  and  the  so-called  balance  of  trade 
means  simply  this.  Let  us  suppose  that  I 
am  trading  with  you.  I  live  in  the  Money 
Republic  and  you  in  one  of  the  gold  standard 
colonies.  If  the  balance  of  trade  is  against 
me,  it  simply  means  that  the  amount  of  my 
commodities,  plus  a  certain  amount  of  gold, 
is  equal  to  the  amount  of  your  commodities 
which  I  wish  to  procure.  But  since  gold  is  a 
commodity,  it  is  evident  that  to  say  that  at 
any  time  the  balance  of  trade  is  unfavorable 
to  either  trader  is  an  absurdity,  since  trade  is, 
always  was,  and  always  must  be  a  simple 
barter,  a  simple  exchange  of  two  things  of 
equal  market  value.  When  the  exportation 
of  all  commodities  but  gold  did  not  equal  in 
market  value  the  importation  of  all  commodi- 
ties but  gold,  it  is  evident  that  gold  would 
have  to  be  exported  if  the  man  in  whose  favor 
the  trade  was  supposed  to  be  demanded  this  • 
difference  in  market  value  to  be  paid  in  the 
commodity,  gold.  If  he  demanded  the  differ- 
ence in  any  other  commodity,  that  commodity 
would  have  to  be  exported.  Why  trade  was 
called  favorable  or  unfavorable  in  your  time 


i8o  The  Great  Awakening 

was  because  you  gave  to  one  commodity,  of 
which  the  supply  was  Hmited,  the  function  of 
money,  therefore  making  it  imperative  that 
that  commodity  should  stay  in  the  country  ; 
and  as  all  other  nations  did  the  same,  there 
was  a  constant  fight  going  on  to  keep  what 
gold  there  was  from  going  away,  and  to  draw 
in  all  that  could  be  reached.  This  fight  re- 
sulted in  prohibitive  duties  on  imports  and 
bounties  on  exports,  the  aim  being  to  export 
more  goods  than  were  imported,  in  order  that 
gold  might  come  in  settlement  of  the  dif- 
ference. 

"  Now,  in  the  Money  Republic  it  mattered 
not  the  least  jot  whether  any  one  commodity 
stayed  at  home  or  not.  Their  money  was 
based  on  all  commodities,  and  more  or  less 
gold  or  silver  had  no  influence  upon  its  issue. 
They  never  worried  themselves  about  such 
a  thing  as  a  so-called  unfavorable  balance  of 
trade.  If  the  man  they  traded  with  demanded 
gold  besides  the  other  commodities,  they  simply 
exchanged  some  more  commodities  for  gold, 
wherever  they  found  the  gold,  and  paid  the 
debt.  If  the  trader  had  demanded  the  difference 
to  be  paid  in  corn  or  wheat,  the  result  would 
have  been  the  same.  Now  it  is  evident  that 
to  settle  a  debt  payable  in  any  one  commod- 


Theories  in  Operation  i8i 

ity,  on  the  day  the  debt  was  contracted,  will 
be  fair  to  both  debtor  and  creditor  ;  but  if  the 
debt  runs  say  thirty  years,  as  some  of  your 
national  debts  did,  a  tremendous  advantage 
lies  with  the  creditor —  for  in  these  thirty  years 
a  great  many  things  happen  over  which  the 
debtor  or  creditor  has  no  control,  which  affect 
the  supply  of  and  demand  for  gold  —  so  to  con- 
tract a  thirty-year  debt,  payable  in  say  one 
hundred  ounces  of  gold,  is  to  contract  a  con- 
stantly increasing  debt,  since  in  the  thirty  years 
the  amount  of  trade  increases  out  of  all  propor- 
tion to  the  slow  increase  in  the  quantity  of  the 
one  commodity,  gold ;  and  since  to  gold  is  given 
the  function  of  upholding  the  whole  quantity 
of  circulating  medium,  it  follows  that  with  the 
increase  of  trade  there  comes  an  increased 
demand  for  gold,  and  as  this  is  not  met  by  an 
increased  supply,  the  market  value  of  all 
money  rises.  From  one  point  of  view  trade 
is  but  a  barter  of  money  for  commodities,  and 
that  money  has  been  constantly  appreciating 
is  conclusively  shown  by  the  fact  that,  at  any 
one  time  in  your  day,  a  unit  of  money  would 
exchange  for  more  units  of  commodities  than 
it  would  at  a  time  one  hundred  years  previous. 
This,  of  course,  gave  to  those  who  dealt  in 
money  units  a  privilege  denied  to  other  men. 


1 82  The  Great  Awakening 

This  privilege  procured  for  its  owners  leisure, 
with  leisure  came  mental  growth,  and  thus 
the  environment  of  the  parent  became  hered- 
ity for  the  child,  and  it  started  far  ahead  of 
the  child  of  the  man  who  dealt  in  commodity 
units.  This  unequal  start  was,  of  course, 
exaggerated,  for  the  child  generally,  or  at 
least  very  often,  followed  his  father's  foot- 
steps. Thus,  in  proportion  as  a  country  was 
old  and  commercially  active,  its  people  were 
divided  by  class  distinctions,  which  grew  wider 
every  year.  From  this  we  would  conclude 
that  in  that  country  which  had  existed  longest 
as  a  national  unit,  which  was  the  most  active 
in  trading,  and  which  had  for  the  basis  of  its 
circulating  medium  the  one  commodity,  gold, 
—  in  such  a  country,  I  say,  we  would  expect 
to  find  the  greatest  class  distinctions.  Our 
expectations  come  true.  Nowhere  among  the 
uncivilized  nations  of  your  century  do  we  find 
a  nation  in  which  the  difference  in  distribution 
of  wealth  was  so  great  as  in  England.  No- 
where was  there  a  city  in  which  such  poverty 
existed  in  the  midst  of  such  wealth  as  in  the 
city  of  London.  This  city  was  the  financial 
centre  of  the  world,  and  nowhere  did  the  gold 
standard  have  such  power  as  here.  But  let 
us  return  to  the  effect  of  the  flying  machine 
on  civilization. 


Theories  in  Operation  183 

"Long  before  the  Chaotic  Era — in  fact,  at 
the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century,  the 
flying  machine  came  into  common  everyday 
use.  It  never  carried  hea\y  weights  ;  even  in 
our  day  we  have  only  a  few  machines  capable 
of  supporting  two  tons.  The  commonest 
machine  is  the  one  for  a  single  person,  weighing 
—  man,  machine,  and  baggage  —  perhaps  two 
hundred  and  fifty  pounds.  These  were  quite 
numerous  in  the  early  part  of  the  century, 
and  besides  their  use  for  pleasure,  they  were 
used  to  enforce  law.  Very  early  in  its  history 
the  flying  machine  occupied  a  prominent 
place  in  enforcing  law  in  the  large,  unoccupied 
tracts  of  South  America  and  Africa,  where 
population  was  scarce  and  thieves  and  outlaws 
more  or  less  common.  Settlers  living  here 
were  protected  not  by  scouts  and  soldiers,  but  by 
aerial  patrolmen,  who,  circling  high  above, 
gave  the  most  efficient  protection  possible. 
When  the  settlers  reached  their  destination 
they  built,  not  a  blockhouse  or  a  fort,  but  a 
raised  platform ;  and  around  this  they  placed 
their  houses.  They  kept  no  specially  trained 
men  to  act  as  soldiers,  but  every  man  and 
woman  had  to  learn  to  manage  an  aerodrome, 
the  labor  value  of  which  was  very  small.  All, 
both  women  and  men,  took  turns  at  patrol 
duty. 


184  The  Great  Awakening 

"  In  the  old  days  the  duty  of  the  soldier 
was  a  hard  one.  To  stand  the  strain  required 
a  strong  man ;  but  to  drive  out  an  enemy 
with  the  aid  of  the  flying  machine  required 
no  exertion  at  all  and  no  skill  except  that 
required  to  fly,  which  every  one  was  most 
anxious  to  attain.  One  did  not  need  to  know 
how  to  shoot ;  he  simply  flew  over  his  enemy 
and  dropped  a  small  bomb.  Women  and 
children  were  soon  as  proficient  at  this  as  the 
men  were,  so  that  in  this  community  all  were 
able-bodied  men,  so  to  speak.  Indeed,  guns 
were  seldom  used,  their  method  of  hunting 
being  unique.  If,  for  instance,  game,  as  deer 
or  bear,  was  wanted,  several  started  off 
through  the  air  with  ten  or  twelve  small 
dynamite  bombs  weighing  perhaps  one  pound 
each.  These  hunters  flew  off  right  into  the 
heart  of  the  game  country  and  circled  about 
five  or  six  hundred  feet  high,  in  search  of  the 
game.  When  it  was  sighted  the  chase  be- 
gan, and  it  was  sometimes  very  difficult  to 
get  in  the  right  position  for  dropping  the 
bomb.  The  finest  shot  was  he  who  could, 
more  often  than  the  others,  drop  his  bomb 
upon  the  animal's  head,  thus  insuring  instant 
death  without  mutilation  of  the  body.  You 
can  imagine  the  excitement  of  flying  through 


Theories  in  Operation  185 

the  air,  like  an  express  train,  after  a  deer 
which  is  running  from  rock  to  rock,  in  order 
to  get  in  a  position  to  give  it  the  death 
blow.  The  excitement  comes  from  the  dif- 
ficulty of  handling  the  machine,  not  from  the 
danger  of  contact  with  the  animal,  and  the 
fiercest  animals  may  be  thus  attacked  and 
defeated  by  women  and  children,  provided 
only  they  have  the  requisite  skill  in  handling 
their  aerodromes.  This  method  of  attack 
was  common  to  birds  of  prey,  except  that 
they  themselves  dropped  upon  their  victims, 
while  with  us  a  small  quantity  of  dynamite 
settles  the  affair. 

"  Over  these  little  settlements  there  was 
some  one  on  duty  all  the  time.  All  the  men 
between  the  ages  of  twenty  and  twenty-five 
years  were  subject  to  this  duty,  and  no  person 
had  to  do  patrol  duty  for  more  than  six  hours 
at  a  time.  Each  patrolman  had  a  bugle  with 
which  he  called  the  people  to  arms  if  he  saw 
the  need.  In  this  way  all  the  fighting  force 
could  be  concentrated  on  one  spot,  within  a 
hundred  miles  of  the  settlement,  in  less  than 
three  hours,  even  over  mountainous  or  wooded 
country ;  so  you  see  invasions  or  uprisings  were 
out  of  the  question,  as  they  were  stopped 
before  they  had  gained  sufficient  strength  to 
enter  the  country  in  force. 


i86  The  Great  Awakening 

"  Some  time  next  week  I  want  you  to  take 
a  flying  trip  with  me  to  a  point  west  of 
Hudson's  Bay,  where  we  can  enjoy  the  scenery. 
I  will  teach  you  the  use  of  the  aerodrome, 
and  we  will  each  hire  one  and  have  some 
sport." 

"That  will  be  fine,  professor.  But  tell  me, 
supposing  the  enemy  has  flying  machines, 
what  happens.''" 

"Both  contestants,  when  they  meet  in  the 
skies,  come  to  their  senses  and  settle  the  case 
by  arbitration.  When,  fighting  on  the  ground, 
one  is  wounded,  he  has  a  chance  of  recovering ; 
but  in  the  air,  if  anything  goes  wrong,  it  is  a 
fall  of  one  or  two  thousand  feet  and  certain 
death  to  all,  whether  wounded  or  not,  whether 
general  or  private.  In  the  warfare  of  your 
time  those  who  instigated  it  and  managed  it 
never  bore  the  brunt  of  it ;  they  were  always 
in  a  safe  place,  and  therefore  warfare  was 
often  instigated  by  those  who  gained  person- 
ally. But  the  flying  machine  makes  every 
part  of  the  battlefield  the  hottest  part.  There 
is  no  safe  place ;  one  is  as  liable  to  get  killed 
in  one  place  as  in  another,  although  the 
two  places  may  be  one  hundred  miles  apart. 
There  is  no  telling  where  the  next  bomb  will 
strike.     For  this  reason  there  has  never  been 


Theories  in  Operation  187 

a  battle  carried  on  in  the  air ;  before  that  point 
was  reached  arbitration  always  stepped  in. 
There  have  been,  however,  single  combats  be- 
tween patrolmen  and  outlaws.  The  patrolman 
almost  invariably  wins,  especially  if  he  is  near 
his  station,  as  his  bugle  call  for  help  is  quickly 
answered.  There  are,  however,  recorded 
cases  where  a  patrolman  has  been  caught  by 
an  outlaw  far  out  of  hearing,  and  the  duel 
which  followed  is  very  interesting.  It  is  like 
the.  duel  of  the  falcon  and  its  prey.  Each 
man  tries  to  get  above  the  other  in  order  to 
drop  his  bomb.  Round  and  round  they  fly  in 
great  circles,  rising  higher  and  higher,  every 
now  and  then  firing  their  revolvers  at  each 
other.  To  an  observer  on  the  earth  they  soon 
appear  as  two  dots  on  the  sky,  and  finally  they 
are  lost  entirely.  If,  however,  the  observer 
be  patient,  he  may  see  the  tragic  end.  A  dull 
boom  floats  down  to  his  listening  ears,  his 
peering  eyes  at  last  catch  sight  of  the  two 
dots,  one  still  slowly  sailing  in  large  circles,  and 
the  other  growing  larger  and  larger  every  sec- 
ond. Who  has  triumphed.''  Down  come  the 
body  and  the  fragments  with  a  tremendous 
shriek  and  rush  of  wind.  By  the  time  the  ob- 
serv'er  reaches  the  spot  the  body  is  crushed 
out  of  all  semblance  to  a  human  being,  and 


1 88  The  Great  Awakenino- 


& 


parts  of  the  machine  are  strewn  in  profusion 
on  every  side.  It  is  generally  impossible  to 
recognize  anything  in  the  remains,  and  unless 
the  other  duelist  deigns  to  show  himself,  the 
observer  can  never  answer  the  question,  which? 
"These  duels  are  very  rare.  The  danger  of 
a  combat  in  the  air  is  so  great  that  a  man  will 
submit  to  almost  anything  rather  than  that ;  so 
generally,  if  an  outlaw  sees  a  patrolman,  he 
gets  out  of  sight  as  quickly  as  possible.  Of 
course,  we  have  no  outlaws  or  criminals  in  our 
country  now,  but  they  still  exist  in  some  parts 
of  South  America,  Asia,  and  Africa  where 
the  people  are  slow  in  progressing." 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

CONTAINS     A     DESCRIPTION     OF    THE    MODERN 
COLLEGE     GAME. 

It  was  almost  a  week  after  my  visit  to  the 
store  that  I  had  occasion  to  talk  with  the 
professor  again.  He  was  very  busy  arranging 
our  trip,  and  although  I  saw  him  at  meals,  I 
was  left  to  myself  most  of  the  tine,  and  spent 
my  leisure  hours  in  riding  about  the  city,  en- 
joying the  sights,  and  talking  with  many  of 
the  professor's  friends  to  whom  I  had  been 
introduced. 

I  took  several  trips  down  the  harbor  in  the 
swift  boats,  all  of  which  were  driven  by  an 
electric  motor  and  used  oil  for  fuel,  while 
the  products  of  combustion  were  forced  out 
of  the  stern  of  the  vessel,  thus  doing  away 
entirely  with  the  dirt,  noise,  and  all  the  dis- 
agreeable features  which  were  present  on  the 
steamboat  of  my  time.  There  was  also  no 
vibration,  caused  presumably  by  the  lack  of 
reciprocating  parts  in  the  engine ;  and  the 
whole  space  of  deck  was  given  over  to  the 


190  The  Great  Awakening 

passengers,  instead  of  being  occupied  by  the 
house  co\'ering  the  boilers  and  engine  as  in 
my  day.  I  must  remark  here  that  I  had  not 
yet  become  accustomed  to  seeing  the  air  full 
of  men,  and  the  sight  was  very  novel  and  in- 
teresting to  me,  for  many  times  some  fellow 
would  come  close  to  us,  looking  like  a  great 
albatross,  and  circle  around  or  dash  hither 
and  thither,  his  small  propellers  whirring  or 
his  long  wings  flapping ;  and  upon  more  than 
one  occasion  these  gigantic  birds  landed  upon 
our  decks. 

I  had,  therefore,  more  than  one  opportunity 
to  examine  the  machines  and  to  watch  the 
art  of  soaring,  which  on  certain  days,  when 
the  wind  was  right,  could  be  seen  everywhere. 
Most  of  these  machines  were  built  so  that  on 
occasion  the  propellers  or  wings  could  be  re- 
moved, leaving  only  the  supporting  surfaces  ; 
and  in  this  condition  they  were  used  for  soar- 
ing, as  they  were  very  light  —  weighing  about 
twenty  pounds,  I  believe — and  easily  handled. 
I  was,  as  you  may  well  imagine,  very  much 
surprised  to  see  so  many  women  in  the  air, 
and  could  not  but  admire  the  skill  they  showed 
in  handling  the  machines. 

During  this  week  it  was  my  good  fortune 
to  witness  a  game  played  in  the  air  by  two 


A  Game  in  the  Air  191 

college  teams.  The  grounds  were  very  ex- 
tensive, with  small  artificial  mounds  built  in 
various  spots,  and  there  were  also  small  trees 
placed  so  as  to  cut  the  wind  into  small  and 
baffling  currents ;  for  the  game  was  played  by 
men  in  soaring  machines.  At  one  end  of  the 
field  there  was  a  large  grand  stand  and  raised 
platform  from  which  the  flyers  started. 
There  were  nine  plots  marked  off  by  flags, 
located  in  different  parts  of  the  grounds,  each 
plot  being  only  one  yard  in  diameter.  Each 
college  entered  seven  men,  who  used  simple 
soaring  machines,  no  motors  being  allowed ; 
and  the  surfaces  of  the  different  machines 
were,  in  the  game  I  saw,  crimson  or  blue  silk, 
according  to  the  college  to  which  the  man 
belonged.  They  also  had  twenty-seven  darts 
or  arrows  apiece,  which  had  at  one  end  a 
blunt  point,  while  the  other  held  a  red  or  blue 
flag. 

The  game  started  as  follows  :  at  a  given 
signal  all  fourteen  men  left  the  platform  and 
started  for  the  first  plot,  or  base,  as  it  was 
called,  and  the  object  of  each  man  was  to 
drop  his  arrows  so  that  they  would  stick  up- 
right within  the  confines  of  the  circle  of  little 
flags  which  marked  the  plot.  Each  man  had 
to  deposit  three  arrows  on  first  base  before 


192  The  Great  Awakening 

he  could  go  to  second  base  ;  or  if  he  could  not 
succeed  in  doing  this  and  left  first  for  second, 
he  forfeited  all  the  arrows  he  dropped  at  first 
either  inside  or  outside  of  the  prescribed  area. 
A  man  could  interfere  with  another  by  getting 
below  his  adversary  and  stopping  the  fall  of 
the  arrow ;  but  if  in  doing  this  he  got  so  close 
to  the  ground  as  to  be  unable  to  rise  again 
and  was  forced  to  land,  he  was  out  of  the 
game,  and  his  side  lost  the  twenty-seven  arrows 
he  started  with.  The  game  ends  when  all 
the  arrows  have  been  dropped,  and  that  side 
wins  which  has  the  greatest  number  of  arrows 
sticking  on  the  bases. 

The  game  at  which  I  was  present  was  wit- 
nessed by  many  thousand  people,  most  of 
them  crowding  around  the  different  bases,  for 
it  was  at  these  spots  that  the  skill  was  shown. 
Each  college  had  its  quota  of  enthusiastic  fol- 
lowers, with  their  flags  and  their  class  yells  ; 
and  the  noise  around  a  base,  when  each  man 
was  striving  to  drop  his  arrows  to  the  best  ad- 
vantage and  each  was  interfering  with  the 
other,  reminded  me  of  the  college  football 
games  of  my  time  when  somebody's  goal  was 
in  danger. 

The  day  was  fine  and  the  wind,  a  very  im- 
portant  factor,   was  satisfactory.     I  rode    in 


A  Game  in  the  Air  193 

the  professor's  carriage  to  the  starting  point, 
and  saw  the  different  college  athletes  and 
coachers  giving  their  last  bits  of  advice  and 
examining  attentively  the  different  parts  of 
the  machines,  that  no  mishap  might  occur. 

At  ten  o'clock  the  signal  was  given,  and 
the  men  went  on  to  the  platform,  one  after 
the  other,  and  made  their  last  preparations. 
When  the  pistol  was  fired,  they  dropped  off 
and  began  to  circle  and  get  altitude,  in  order 
to  run  clear  and  fast  to  first  base.  With  so 
many  men  in  the  air,  each  striving  to  get  over 
a  certain  small  spot  of  ground  before  the 
other,  the  difficulty  of  steering  and  the  danger 
of  collision  brought  out  very  quickly  the  skill 
of  the  various  contestants  and  caused  the 
game  to  be  very  exciting.  After  the  men 
had  left  the  platform  most  of  the  spectators 
rushed  off  on  bicycles  or  in  carriages  for  first 
base,  to  see  the  fun  ;  and  it  is  needless  to  say 
that  I  went  along  with  the  rest  and  took  up  a 
position  as  near  the  ropes  as  I  could.  This 
base  was  about  a  mile  from  the  grand  stand, 
and  most  of  the  crowd  reached  it  before  the  con- 
testants did.  The  first  man  to  get  there  was 
a  little  fellow  in  a  red  machine,  and  he  came 
along  swiftly,  flying  low.  He  was  greeted 
immediately  by  a  great  chorus  of  yells,  toots, 


1 94  The  Great  Awakening 

and  waving  of  handkerchiefs  by  his  side, 
which  must  have  made  him  feel  very  grand 
indeed.  He  had  to  drop  six  arrows,  however, 
before  three  went  on  to  the  base,  but  he  got 
away  before  the  crowd  came  swooping  along, 
and  sailed  off  for  second  with  many  of  his 
friends  running  after  him,  yelling  themselves 
hoarse.  After  he  left,  the  crowd  around  first 
base  became  frantic,  for  all  thirteen  men  were 
rushing  through  in  the  air,  and  arrows  were 
falling  fast.  I  got  very  uneasy  and  was  ex- 
pecting a  collision  and  death  at  any  moment, 
but  the  air  cleared  gradually,  and  one  by  one 
they  made  off  for  second,  either  being  success- 
ful or  else  giving  it  up  for  a  bad  job. 

The  count  at  this  point  was  twenty-one 
arrows  on  the  base  out  of  thirty-nine  dropped 
by  the  reds,  while  the  blues  had  twenty-one 
out  of  thirty-two.  As  the  blues  had  lost 
fewer  arrows,  while  their  count  was  the  equal  of 
the  reds',  their  enthusiam  knew  no  bounds, 
and  cheer  after  cheer  arose  from  their  side. 
The  crowd  then  moved  off  in  a  body  to  second 
base,  and  the  same  scene  was  enacted  there. 
At  the  fifth  base  the  contestants  numbered 
only  nine,  three  having  dropped  all  their  arrows, 
and  the  other  two  having  been  forced  to  land 
on  the  ground  because  of  some  baffling  and  un- 


A  Game  in  the  Air  195 

expected    current.     When    the    contest  here 
was  over,  I  returned  to  the  grand  stand  to 
watch  the  players   come  in,  which  they  did 
after    covering    sevens  bases.     On    the    final 
count,  with  all  deductions,  the  reds  won  by 
five  arrows,  or  points,  as    they    were    called, 
and  the  shouting  began   immediately   at  the 
announcement  of  the  score.     The  college  boys 
rushed  in  a  body  to  the  platform  and  carried 
off  their  victorious  athletes   to  the  dressing 
rooms  ;  while  the  vanquished,  surrounded  by 
their  loyal,  but  exceedingly  downcast  brethren, 
proceeded    to    explain   why   they   had   failed 
and  vowed  vengeance  at  the  next  meeting. 
As  for  myself,  I  was  exceedingly  happy,  not 
because  the  reds  had  won,  but  because  no  one 
was  kUled,   and  turned  homeward,  thinking  of 
the  times  many  years  ago  —  indeed,  many  gen- 
erations ago  —  when  I  had  bought  a  flag  and  a 
horn  and  yelled  myself  hoarse  in  the  midst  of 
ten   thousand    people,    all    mterested   in    the 
actions  of  twenty-two  men  and  a  ball  on  a 
field  covered  with  white  lines. 

In  talking  with  the  professor  that  night,  I 
told  him  of  my  fear  of  collision  ;  but  he  said 
the  number  of  accidents  in  such  a  contest  was 
very  small,  and  he  did  not  doubt  there  were 
more  men  hurt  in  our  old  game  of  football 


196  The  Great  Awakening 

than  in  this  new  game  which  had  taken  its 
place. 

"You  have  seen  how  skilfully  the  aero- 
dromes can  be  managed,  and  now  you  will 
have  a  chance  to  try  one  for  yourself,  for  we 
start  to-morrow  morning  on  our  trip.  I  have 
everything  arranged,  the  aerodrome  is  hired, 
our  camping  kit  and  heavy  pistols  are  packed, 
for  I  think  as  long  as  you  are  familiar  with 
this  weapon  we  may  as  well  take  it." 

"How  is  it,  professor,  that  you  can  get 
time  for  this  trip  ? ' ' 

"Why,  I  am  taking  a  year's  vacation.  I 
economized  on  purpose  to  spend  a  year  in 
scientific  research  and  sport,  and  am  now  liv- 
ing on  the  money  I  have  saved.  I  do  not 
have  any  money  issued  to  me  until  I  reg- 
ister my  name  as  a  laborer  again ;  but  I 
can  get  no  interest  for  my  money,  for  there 
are  no  borrowers,  and  my  vacation  is,  there- 
fore, limited  to  the  exact  amount  of  money  I 
have  saved,  which  is  as  it  should  be.  We 
start  in  the  morning  for  the  north,  and  I  ex- 
pect to  be  in  the  heart  of  the  hunting  grounds 
in  about  a  day  and  a  half.  We  will  camp 
near  or  under  a  raised  platform  and  keep  our 
dromes  upon  it  where  they  will  be  handy. 
You  know  that   these  platforms  are  almost 


A  Game  in  the  Air  197 

everywhere  now.  They  are  simply  constructed, 
trees  standing  near  are  often  used,  and  the 
elevator  is  generally  worked  by  hand,  espe- 
cially where  the  platform  is  far  from  civili- 
zation. Our  small  dromes  we  will  hire  at 
Hudson's  Bay,  and  from  there  we  will 
continue  our  journey  in  separate  machines." 

"What  do  you  give  for  these  machines .-*" 

"Why,  Canadian  paper  money,  which  is 
just  like  our  money,  and  which  I  shall  buy 
with  our  money." 

"But,  professor,  I  have  never  managed  an 
aerodrome  in  my  life.  As  soon  as  I  get  in  the 
air  I  shall  probably  begin  to  turn  somersaults." 

"That  is  impossible.  We  have  an  auto- 
matic arrangement  of  the  wings  and  tail  which 
positively  limits  the  amount  of  oscillation. 
Within  that  limit  you  can  alter  the  angle  the 
machine  flies  at,  but  it  is  impossible  for  you  to 
overturn  it.  You  will  have  a  chance  in  the 
flight  north  to  manage  the  large  machine, 
where  you  will  be  constantly  under  the  eye  of 
the  engineer,  and  by  the  time  we  arrive  at  our 
destination  on  the  Bay  you  will  be  able  to 
handle  a  separate  machine.  My  plan  is  to 
stop  for  a  day  or  so  at  a  place  called  Albany, 
pick  out  the  necessary  provisions,  and  pack 
them  with  the  kit  into  our  aerodromes;  we 


198  The  Great  Awakening 

will  not  need  to  carry  many  stores,  for  we  are 
going  only  about  three  hours'  fly,  a  distance 
of  perhaps  150  miles  west  in  a  straight  line. 
You  see,  if  there  is  anything  we  need,  six 
hours'  journey  will  procure  it,  although  that 
journey  will  take  us  over  impenetrable  forests, 
swollen  streams,  and  rugged  mountains." 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

A    THOUSAND    MILE    TRIP    IN    A    FLYING 

MACHINE. 

The  next  morning  the  professor  and  I  rode 
in  the  buggy  to  the  aerial  elevator,  where  we 
found  our  drome  and  engineer  waiting  for 
us.  The  boat-like  structure  was  packed  with 
a  small  tent,  camp  stove  and  cooking  outfit, 
and  some  extra  clothing,  with  the  bedding. 
Our  arms  were  in  a  rack  at  one  side,  and 
consisted  of  two  heavy  pistols  apiece.  These 
weapons  were  unique  and  worthy  a  descrip- 
tion. They  had  a  32-calibre  barrel,  about 
eighteen  inches  long,  under  which  near  the 
breech  was  another  cylinder  of  the  finest 
steel,  which  contained  liquid  air  held  at  a  tre- 
mendous pressure.  The  bullets  were  of 
steel  and  fitted  in  little  packets  of  seven 
under  the  breech.  The  arm  was  self-cock- 
ing. A  pull  on  the  trigger  brought  a  bullet 
into  the  barrel,  closed  the  breech,  and  liber- 
ated a  drop  of  liquid  air  which  expanded  with 
tremendous  force. 


200  The  Great  Awakening 

The  initial  velocity  was  very  high,  and  for 
a  short  distance  the  arm  was  very  accurate. 
The  advantage  of  using  air  was  that  there 
was  no  noise  as  with  powder,  no  smoke,  and 
absolutely  no  fouling  of  the  barrel. 

I  was  introduced  to  our  engineer,  Herbert 
Olsen  by  name,  and  as  the  machine  was  all 
ready  for  the  start  we  did  not  delay,  but,  jump- 
ing in,  we  were  rolled  on  to  the  elevator,  and 
were  soon  rising  in  the  tower. 

As  we  went  over  the  edge  and  took  that 
awful  fall,  I  must  say  that  I  experienced  the 
same  terrible  feeling  I  had  in  my  first  at- 
tempt, but  I  held  firmly  to  the  rail,  and  made 
up  my  mind  to  overcome  it.  Some  time  after- 
wards, when  I  had  become  familiar  with  the 
use  of  the  drome,  I  found  that  I  could  posi- 
tively enjoy  the  falling  sensation.  This  is 
distressing  to  us  only  because  in  our  baby- 
hood a  fall  generally  meant  pain,  and  the 
association  of  the  two  phenomena  is  carried  to 
the  grave.  With  people  that  travel  on  the 
earth  a  fall  generally  means  an  injury,  but 
when  traveling  in  the  air  in  such  a  perfect 
machine  as  the  one  I  was  now  in,  to  fall  be- 
comes a  delightful  sensation,  simply  because 
in  time  it  becomes  dissociated  with  the  phe- 
nomenon of  pain. 


An  Aerial  Excursion  201 

We  were  now  travelling  northward  at  about 
forty  or  fifty  miles  an  hour,  at  an  altitude  of  a 
thousand  feet.  The  boat-like  structure  in 
which  we  sat  was  decked  over  in  front,  and 
presented  an  easy  shape  to  the  wind,  in  order 
to  diminish  the  resistance  to  progress,  while 
the  rear  was  covered  with  a  light  but  tough 
glass,  so  that  we  could  see  the  country  below 
us.  The  engineer  sat  in  the  middle,  just 
behind  the  electric  generator,  with  his  right 
hand  on  a  lever  which  controlled  the  move- 
ment of  the  boat  to  different  parts  of  the 
frame,  so  that  one  could  easily  and  quickly 
change  the  line  of  flight ;  and  forward  of  this 
were  two  bunks  and  some  small  arrangements 
for  cooking  by  electricity.  The  whole  struc- 
ture, however,  was  very  lightly  buUt  and 
would  not  stand  hard  usage ;  but,  then,  it 
never  would  receive  hard  usage  unless  the 
engineer  was  exceptionally  clumsy  in  making 
a  landing. 

The  country  looked  very  beautiful  from 
where  we  were.  It  was  still  early  in  the 
morning,  about  six  o'clock,  I  believe ;  and  we 
were  now  over  districts  more  thinly  settled. 
The  sunlight  reflected  from  the  little  streams 
and  ponds,  from  the  rich  green  woods  and  the 
open,  velvety  pasture  lands,  bathed  everything 


202  The  Great  Awakening 

in  a  beautiful  rosy  tint,  and  was  a  most  re- 
freshing sight. 

"  Professor,  in  your  thickly  settled  districts, 
what  is  the  proportion  of  population  to  area  ?  " 

"  Oh,  at  most  perhaps  ten  to  the  acre. 
With  our  dromes,  carriages,  and  electric  roads, 
that  is  not  too  far  to  be  from  your  neighbors, 
while  such  a  ratio  is  too  low  to  cause  any  filth 
or  disease.  You  see  our  business  does  not 
drive  us  nearer,  so  the  density  of  our  popula- 
tion depends  wholly  upon  the  rules  of  health, 
as  it  should.  Of  course,  in  your  time,  even 
with  a  radical  change  in  finance,  you  would 
still  have  to  live  closer  than  we  do,  from  lack 
of  efficient  methods  of  long  distance  transpor- 
tation ;  but  your  wisest  men  did  not  see  that 
with  material  growth  comes  mental  growth, 
and  that  the  two  together  will  inevitably  de- 
stroy cities. 

"  It  was  often  the  case  that  men  in  your 
time  affirmed  over  and  over  again  that  the 
evils  which  humanity  endured  were  the  direct 
results  of  human  nature,  which  never  could 
be  changed.  Some  of  your  best  writers,  in 
giving  their  idea  of  a  millennium,  always 
assumed  in  the  first  place  a  change  in  human 
nature,  bringing  about  true  brotherly  love. 
Now,  to  speak  correctly,  such  a  thing  as  a 


An  Aerial  Excursion  203 

millennium  does  not  and  cannot  exist.  It  is 
a  state  of  evolution  beyond  which  no  prog- 
ress can  be  made,  which  is  manifestly  as 
absurd  as  to  say  that  there  is  a  line  which 
marks  the  end  of  the  universe,  beyond  which 
there  is  nothing.  MutabiHty  is  an  immutable 
law  of  nature.  What  is  meant  by  a  millen- 
nium is  simply  a  condition  than  which,  in  the 
mind  of  the  author,  nothing  better  exists  ;  but 
when  that  state  arrives  in  the  natural  course 
of  events,  there  will  be  found  plenty  of  men 
brought  up  in  the  supposed  millennium,  who 
will  still  have  millenniums  to  propose." 

"  Are  there  still  men  who  think  things 
should  be  different .-'  " 

"  Of  course  there  are,  and  there  always 
will  be.  The  improvement  which  they  want 
is  not  so  radical  as  was  needed  in  your  time. 
We  all  realize  now  that  society  is  at  last 
founded  upon  a  just  basis,  since  all  men  and 
women,  no  matter  what  their  parentage,  have 
equal  industrial  opportunities.  Our  reforms 
deal  with  other  things  which  you,  with  your 
nineteenth-century  brain,  could  not  under- 
stand. But  concerning  human  nature  there 
is  a  great  deal  to  be  said.  In  your  time 
those  two  words  were  used  very  loosely  as  a 
sort  of  general   cause  for  every   evil  which 


204  The  Great  Awakening 

could  not  be  explained  in  any  other  way. 
The  meaning  of  the  words  was  not  properly 
understood.  There  are  only  two  human  in- 
stincts to  which  we  can  apply  the  term  human 
nature.  The  first  is  that  of  self-preservation, 
and  the  other  that  of  the  propagation  of  kind. 
These  are  primary  forces  moulding  man's 
actions  ;  and  as  long  as  he  remains  physically 
as  he  now  exists,  we  may  be  pretty  sure  that 
those  forces  will  always  have  to  be  considered. 
No  other  forces  can  properly  be  termed  human 
nature.  The  phenomena  of  action  which  we 
see  in  man  represent  simply  the  way  in  which 
these  great  instincts  show  themselves  in  social 
life.  Now  man  in  social  life  is  affected  by 
thousands  of  forces  acting  upon  him  through 
his  senses.  He  is  completely  metamorphosed 
by  the  civilization  in  which  he  resides.  The 
manner  in  which  a  civilized  man's  primary 
instincts  show  themselves  is  distinctly  and 
totally  different  from  the  same  in  savagery. 
Ambition,  industry,  frugality,  greed,  alertness, 
cunning,  —  all  are  but  ways  in  which  the  first 
great  human  instinct,  as  moulded  by  con- 
ditions, shows  itself.  Sympathy,  pity,  gener- 
osity, watchfulness,  and  lastly  —  the  greatest 
of  all  —  love,  are  but  the  ways  in  which  the 
instinct  of  the  propagation  of  kind  appears  to 


An  Aerial  Excursion  205 

us.  Move  a  people  from  the  temperate  to  the 
torrid  zone,  and  you  change  riot  their  nature, 
but  the  way  in  vyhich  that  nature  manifests 
itself  in  social  life.  The  harder  you  make  the 
earning  of  an  honest  living,  the  more  the  first 
instinct  shows  itself  and  breeds  misers,  crim- 
inals, and  thieves.  The  easier  you  make  the 
work  of  a  man  born  with  nothing  but  the 
ability  to  labor,  the  more  will  the  second  in- 
stinct rise  above  the  first.  The  instinct  of 
self-preservation  saves  the  individual,  and  this 
instinct  will  prevail  over  all  others  in  those 
civilizations  in  which  economic  conditions 
make  it  hard  to  earn  a  living.  If  economic 
conditions  could  be  brought  about  whereby 
man  had  nothing  to  fear  from  his  fellow  men, 
the  first  mstinct  would  give  way  to  the  second, 
and  then  would  follow  that  brotherly  love  so 
much  preached  in  your  day.  The  human 
characteristics  which  are  so  elevating  to  the 
race  are  sympathy,  pity,  and  love,  and  they 
will  never  show  themselves  beyond  the  family 
and  immediate  friends  so  long  as  the  first  in- 
stinct dominates  men's  actions  ;  and  this  in- 
stinct of  self-preservation  will  dominate  men's 
actions  just  so  long  as  the  issue  of  money  is 
limited  to  one  commodity  and  land  and  capital 
are  treated  as  private  property,  for  while  this 


2o6  The  Great  Awakening 

is  so,  some  will  be  born  poor  and  some  rich, 
and  for  the  poor  man  life  means  a  hard  and 
long  fight  against  tyrants.  Do  away  with 
your  barbarous  laws  and  social  system,  and 
then,  no  longer  having  to  fight  to  be  allowed 
to  live,  man's  nature  will  grow  soft,  sym- 
pathetic, and  kind  under  the  influence  of  his 
second  great  instinct,  love.  With  this  social 
change  a  man's  love  will  extend  to  all,  for 
none  will  wish  evil  to  any  man.  All  progress 
towards  this  depends  upon  the  increase  of  our 
knowledge ;  and  of  the  sciences,  political 
economy,  which  is  the  greatest  of  them  all, 
has  done  the  most  to  cause  an  increase  of 
brotherly  love. 

"  We  have  learned  much  in  this  science, 
and  we  have  discovered  four  laws,  only  one 
of  which  was  believed  in  in  your  time.  These 
four  relate  to  the  production  of  wealth,  and 
are  as  follows  :  — 

"I.  Stability  of  government  is  necessary 
for  the  greatest  production  of  wealth. 

"  2.  A  condition  in  which  industry  is  ab- 
solutely free  from  all  governmental  interfer- 
ence is  necessary  for  the  greatest  produc- 
tion of  wealth. 

"  3.  Private  ownership  of  any  necessity 
tends  to  diminish  the  production  of  wealth, 


An  Aerial  Excursion  207 

in  proportion  as  that  ownership  becomes  a 
monopoly. 

"4.  Equal  distribution  of  wealth  is  nec- 
essary for  the  greatest  production  of  wealth. 

"  Of  these  laws  the  first  was  believed  in 
your  time  by  the  least  unciviHzed  nations,  the 
second  had  a  large  number  of  believers,  but 
the  other  two  laws  were  not  known  or  be- 
lieved by  any  considerable  number. 

"  The  South  American  repubhcs,  so  called, 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  serve  as  a  good 
example  of  the  folly  of  disobedience  to  the 
first  law.  In  spite  of  their  natural  resources, 
not  recognizing  this  law,  the  production  of 
wealth  was  very  slow  and  uncertain,  since  the 
government  was  liable  at  any  minute  to  be 
overturned  and  property  confiscated. 

"  The  truth  of  the  second  law  is  nowhere 
better  shown  than  in  the  tremendous  growth 
of  wealth  of  the  English  nation  after  it  had 
entered  on  the  policy  of  free  trade. 

"  The  third  law  had  no  expression  in  the 
politics  of  your  time,  although  one  of  the 
ablest  economists  of  the  nineteenth  century 
had  pointed  out  very  clearly  and  forcibly  the 
evils  of  private  property  in  land,  one,  but  only 
one,  of  the  necessities  of  production. 

"  The  fourth  law  had   no    champion    able 


2o8  The  Great  Awakening* 

enough  to  convince  the  pubHc  of  its  truth, 
though  many  had  complained  of  the  unequal 
distribution  of  wealth. 

"  The  first  law  was  recognized  before  po- 
litical economy  was  studied  to  any  great  ex- 
tent ;  the  second  was  discovered  by  Adam 
Smith,  and  his  book,  "  The  Wealth  of 
Nations,"  was  so  convincing  on  this  point 
that  it  started  the  first  political  movement 
towards  free  trade.  He  was  followed  by  such 
able  writers  as  Henry  Thomas  Buckle,  John 
Stuart  Mill,  Ricardo,  Henry  George,  and  a 
host  of  others  of  lesser  worth,  all  of  whose 
writings  did  much  to  convince  men  of  the 
truth  of  this  law. 

"  Socialistic  writers  have,  with  few  excep- 
tions, recognized  the  truth  of  the  third  law, 
without,  however,  being  able  to  state  it  con- 
vincingly ;  but  they  have  always  suggested,  as 
a  remedy  for  the  evils  of  private  property  in 
land  and  capital,  government  control  of  the 
same,  which  is  a  direct  violation  of  the  second 
law  ;  and  this  shows  us  that  the  socialists,  if 
given  full  power,  would  force  a  country  intci 
one  evil  while  trying  to  save  it  from  another. 
On  the  other  hand,  destructionists,  realizing 
the  evil  caused  by  a  violation  of  the  second 
law,  endeavor  in  all  cases  to  overthrow  exist- 


An  Aerial  Excursion  209 

ing  governments,  thereby  violating  the  first 
law.  Now  the  sensible  man  is  the  one  who 
can  suggest  a  remedy  for  existing  evils  with- 
out violating  any  of  these  laws,  and  neither 
the  destructionist  nor  the  socialist  can  or  has 
done  this.  A  sensible  man,  living  in  a  South 
American  republic,  would  be  justified  in 
violating  the  second  law  to  enforce  the  first, 
since  government  interference  is  not  such  an 
evil  as  instability  of  government.  In  the 
same  way  a  violation  of  the  third  is  not  such 
an  evil  as  a  violation  of  the  second  law,  the 
order  of  importance  being  as  I  have  stated  it 
to  you,  stability  of  government  being  the  most 
important  of  all.  Now  in  different  countries 
different  laws  are  violated,  and  that  is  why 
political  opposition  in  different  countries  takes 
such  different  stands.  One  remedy  may  be 
needed  in  one  country,  while  another  is  needed 
elsewhere.  In  South  America  the  violation 
of  the  first  law  was  the  greatest  evil ;  in  the 
United  States  the  violation  of  the  second  law 
was  the  greatest  evil,  and  the  free  traders 
formed  the  greatest  political  opposition  ;  while 
in  England  these  two  laws  were  understood 
and  believed,  and  the  endeavor  there  was  to 
remedy  the  evils  caused  by  the  violation  of 
the  third  law.     As  to  the  fourth  law,    since 


2IO  The  Great  Awakening 

nobody  believed  in  it,  its  violation  was  not 
considered  an  evil,  and  it  was  not  until  after 
the  birth  of  the  Money  Republic  that  this 
law  was  understood. 

"  With  a  thorough  knowledge  of  history 
and  an  understanding  of  these  laws,  one  can 
find  a  nation's  place  in  the  order  of  civiliza- 
tion by  finding  how  many  of  these  laws  were 
recognized  ;  and  in  your  time  England  was  the 
farthest  advanced,  since  she  more  than  any 
other  nation  understood  and  believed  the  first 
two  great  laws  of  political  economy. 

"  But,  my  friend,  we  are  losing  the  beauties 
of  the  scenery.  Do  you  see  the  river  over 
there  on  the  left  ?  How  pretty  the  farms 
look  beneath  us  !  I  am  going  to  get  the  en- 
gineer to  give  you  a  treat.  You  see  that 
heavy  white  cloud  ahead ,''  Well,  we  will  rise 
and  go  through  it." 

The  professor  then  spoke  to  Olsen,  and  our 
course  was  turned  upward. 

"  Now,"  said  the  professor,  "  take  a  look 
below.  See  how  clear  the  atmosphere  is. 
For  a  few  minutes  after  we  strike  the  cloud 
we  shall  be  able  to  see  nothing,  and  everything 
will  be  drenched,  but  when  we  rise  above  it, 
the  view  will,  I  assure  you,  amply  repay  any 
inconvenience  we  may  have  suffered." 


An  Aerial  Excursion  2 1 1 

We  were  rising  on  an  incline,  and  when 
we  were  about  a  mile  away  the  engineer 
began  to  whistle. 

"  That  is  to  warn  any  drome  that  may  be 
in  the  cloud.  What 's  that  ?  An  answering 
whistle,  I  '11  be  bound.  You  can't  go  in  yet, 
Olsen." 

The  professor  was  right.  From  out  of  the 
dense  mass  of  vapor  came  the  faint  notes  of  a 
whistle,  and  our  course  was  turned  to  the  left 
as  we  began  to  circle  and  watch. 

"  If  we  went  in  there  now,  there  would  be 
great  danger  of  collision,  so  we  will  circle 
around  until  the  other  fellow  comes  out." 

We  pursued  this  course  for  some  time. 
The  other  fellow  evidently  was  enjoying  him- 
self, and  was  in  no  hurry  to  move.  From 
where  we  were  I  could  watch  the  farmers 
going  to  work,  and  see  just  below  me  the 
patrolmen  circling  gracefully  over  their  re- 
spective districts. 

From  the  south  a  small  drome  came  flying 
towards  us,  and  passed  about  two  hundred 
feet  below  and  to  the  left  at  a  tremendous 
speed. 

"  There  goes  the  morning's  news,"  said  the 
professor.  "  That  fellow  has  some  printed 
sheets    which    will  be  photographed  and  re- 


2 1 2  The  Great  Awakening 

printed  in  the  next  district.  We  do  not  have 
to  carry  thousands  of  papers  from  city  to  town 
as  you  did.  One  paper  only  is  carried  at  top- 
most speed,  and  the  press  in  the  next  district 
prints  the  papers,  which  are  distributed  in 
horseless  carriages.  Very  soon  you  will  see 
others  in  all  parts  of  the  sky,  carrying  news 
from  everywhere  to  everywhere.  The  carry- 
ing of  news  has  indeed  almost  reached  perfec- 
tion. Each  district  designates  to  certain 
citizens  the  task  of  acting  as  newsboys  for  a 
certain  length  of  time,  just  as  every  one,  male 
or  female,  has  to  patrol  the  skies  for  a  certain 
number  of  hours  during  the  year.  Neither 
of  these  tasks  is  hard ;  indeed,  they  are  just 
the  opposite,  and  are  performed  with  great 
pleasure.  A  dash  through  the  air  for  twenty 
miles  and  back  is,  I  assure  you,  a  very  great 
pleasure  that  few  are  willing  to  forego,  and  so 
it  is  with  patrol  duty.  Six  hours  of  circling 
above  one's  station  is  a  delight,  and  is  per- 
formed as  well  by  women  as  men,  by  old  as 
well  as  by  young ;  no  effort  is  required  save 
to  balance,  the  little  motor  doing  all  the 
work." 

The  stranger's  whistle  meanwhile  was 
heard  nearer  and  nearer,  and  we  eagerly 
scanned  the  cloud  for  the  appearance  of  the 


An  Aerial  Excursion  213 

drome.  Suddenly,  with  a  tremendous  screech, 
it  burst  upon  our  sight.  We  had  no  time  to 
examine  it  as  it  flew  over  us,  but  I  could  see 
that  it  was  a  little  larger  than  ours  and  was 
built  somewhat  differently. 

"  A  war-drome,"  said  the  professor.  "  I 
don't  know  what  it  is  doing  here,  do  you, 
Olsen  ?  " 

"  I  think  it  has  been  over  Lake  Ontario 
blowing  up  some  wrecks  that  are  a  menace  to 
navigation,"  said  the  engineer,  as  he  turned 
to  watch  the  disappearing  machine.  After 
this  disturbance  we  made  our  way  into  the 
cloud  without  further  delay. 

I  do  not  think  I  have  ever  seen  such  thick 
fog.  I  could  not  see  the  wings  of  the  ma- 
chine at  all,  and  the  little  motors  had  to  work 
at  full  speed  to  drive  us  through  it.  Behind 
me  the  invisible  propellers  were  revolving  at  a 
tremendous  rate,  and  from  the  way  in  which 
the  rain  seemed  to  strike  the  windows,  I 
judged  the  velocity  of  the  machine  had  been 
increased.  It  was  only  for  a  minute,  how- 
ever, for  very  soon  we  arose  from  the  cloud 
into  the  sunshine,  and  then  in  truth  was  I 
amply  repaid.  The  earth  was  no  longer  visi- 
ble. The  cloud  seemed  to  extend  from  us  in 
all  directions  to  the  horizon ;  we  seemed  to  be 


2  14  The  Great  Awakening 

in  a  boat  in  mid-ocean.  Our  engineer  turned 
us  this  way  and  that,  dodging  one  billow, 
going  through  the  next,  riding  over  a  third. 
Verily  we  seemed  to  be  a  monstrous  fish  play- 
ing with  the  surf.  Finally,  as  if  tired  of  play, 
we  gave  one  final  jump  up  and  away  from  the 
water,  and  with  a  swoop,  like  a  royal  salmon, 
plunged  in  again  with  terrific  speed.  In  less 
than  a  minute  we  were  through  the  cloud  and 
sailing  along  on  our  journey  again. 

"  Good  heavens,  professor,  what  an  experi- 
ence !  I  don't  know  whether  I  am  beast, 
bird,  or  fish." 

The  professor  laughed,  took  off  his  coat, 
and  began  to  pump  out  the  boat,  which  had 
shipped  quite  a  little  water.  The  wings  and 
framework  dried  very  quickly  from  the  swift 
motion  through  the  air,  and  soon  everything 
was  as  before. 

"  You  see  our  flying  machines  cannot  carry 
much  weight,  and  never  will  be  able  to.  They 
are  excellent  news-carriers,  never  depending 
upon  roads  or  rivers,  but  taking  a  straight 
course  over  even  the  wildest  countries. 
Storms  do  not  deter  them.  They  either  go 
around  or  above  them  ;  it  is  only  very  heavy 
rains  or  mists  which  hamper  them.  They 
give  to  man  a  greater  power  to  enforce  laws  in 


An  Aerial  Excursion  2 1 5 

wild  and  untravelled  countries  than  any  other 
invention  the  world  has  ever  seen,  not  except- 
ing gunpowder ;  and  the  use  of  these  machines 
was  the  main  cause  of  the  downfall  of  the 
moneyed  aristocracy,  as  years  before  gunpow- 
der caused  the  overthrow  of  chivalry.  In 
your  day  money  hired  an  armed  force  to  pro- 
tect it,  but  when  flying  machines  came  into 
use  numbers  did  not  count  ;  no  man  was  safe 
from  the  bomb  of  the  assassin.  This  terrible 
power  put  into  the  hands  of  the  fanatic 
brought  about  that  condition  of  affairs  which 
led  to  the  Chaotic  Era. 

"  In  looking  at  the  history  of  those  times,  I 
do  not  see  how  society  could  have  undergone 
the  radical  change  needed  without  a  terrible 
slaughter  of  the  upper  classes.  It  is  sad  to 
think  of,  but  it  is  a  fact,  that  if  these  upper 
classes  had  been  allowed  to  exist,  their  inborn 
tendency  to  manage  and  control  the  lives  of 
other  men,  coming  from  the  fact  that  they 
had  become  so  used  to  controlling  capital  that 
it  was  second  nature  to  them,  would  have 
been  a  constant  menace  to  a  just  social  organ- 
ization, and  would  in  great  part  have  modified 
the  change  that  was  deemed  absolutely  essen- 
tial. '  Alas,  that  life  must  forever  feed  its 
growth   on  death ! '     Without  a  tremendous 


2 1 6  The  Great  Awakening 

reign  of  terror,  such  as  France  had  in  1798,  I 
do  not  beHeve  it  would  have  been  possible  for 
society  to  readjust  itself  to  the  basis  of  true 
equality." 

Over  Lake  Champlain,  at  noon,  we  encoun- 
tered a  wind  from  the  southeast  which  helped 
us  a  great  deal,  so  that  by  night  we  were  well 
up  in  British  North  America,  with  the  river 
Severn  under  us  and  Lake  Winnipeg  on  our 
left,  about  two  hundred  miles  away.  At  six 
o'clock  the  professor  cooked  some  chops  and 
potatoes  on  a  little  electric  stove,  and  while 
he  was  preparing  the  meal,  Olsen  gave  me  my 
first  lesson  in  handling  a  flying  machine. 

"This  lever  manages  the  whole  affair," 
said  the  engineer,  as  he  pointed  to  a  long  rod 
which  stood  in  a  vertical  position  at  his  side. 
"  You  grasp  it  here  and  thereby  release  a 
catch,  so  that  the  lever  is  free  to  move  in 
any  direction.  If  you  move  it  to  the  right, 
our  boat  travels  to  the  right  of  the  centre  of 
the  frame ;  if  you  move  it  forward,  we  go  to 
the  front,  and  so  on.  No  matter  in  what  di- 
rection the  lever  is  moved,  the  boat  follows  the 
motion.  It  is  similar  to  the  electric  steering 
gear  which  we  use  in  our  vessels,  except  that 
we  have  a  lever  instead  of  a  wheel.  Now  if 
you  will  take  my  place  and  handle  the  lever, 


An  Aerial  Excursion  217 

I  will  stand  beside  you  and  see  that  you  do 
not  overturn  us." 

I  took  my  seat  with  much  trepidation  and 
said  to  myself,  "If  a  puff  comes,  the  first 
the  professor  knows,  he  and  his  chops  will 
come  flying  out  of  the  door." 

"  Now,"  said  Olsen,  "  a  puff  is  coming ;  I 
can  tell  by  the  feeling  of  the  machine.  Bring 
her  horizontal." 

I  pulled  the  lever  back,  and,  sure  enough, 
a  strong  gust  took  us  underneath  at  quite  a 
large  angle  ;  and  if  my  guide  had  not  thrown 
the  lever  forward  immediately  something  seri- 
ous would  have  happened.  As  it  was,  all  the 
weight  was  thrown  forward,  the  machine  was 
balanced,  and  the  puff  simply  raised  us  five 
or  ten  feet  vertically. 

"  You  must  look  out  for  that.  Throw  the 
lever  back  in  order  to  catch  the  wind  under- 
neath the  sails,  but  as  soon  as  you  feel  it 
there,  you  must  throw  the  weight  forward,  as 
otherwise  .the  wind  will  turn  us  over  back- 
wards." 

My  lesson  continued  for  half  an  hour,  and 
by  that  time,  much  to  my  astonishment, 
I  found  I  could  control  the  machine  per- 
fectly 

"  Marvellous  !  "  said  I.     "  It  cannot  be  that 


2i8  The  Great  Awakening 

I  am  extraordinarily  skillful  to  learn  in  so 
short  a  time." 

"Well,  there  is  very  little  to  learn,  the 
machine  is  so  perfect.  A  bird  has  an  appar- 
atus perfectly  designed  for  its  purpose,  there- 
fore it  learns  easily,  and  our  machines  are 
nearly  perfect.  Years  ago,  when  the  flying 
machine  was  crude,  it  took  a  great  deal  of 
skill  to  handle  one,  and  only  a  few  could  man- 
age it  in  very  heavy  winds,  but  now  it  almost 
handles  itself.  It  is  to  a  great  extent  auto- 
matic." 

The  professor  now  called  me  to  dinner,  and 
I  left  Olsen,  to  partake  of  some  electrocuted 
chops,  so  to  speak. 

"In  my  day,  professor,  we  were  in  such  a 
hurry  in  everything  we  did  that  our  methods 
of  cooking  even  were  influenced  by  it." 

"  I  know  it.  A  man  had  to  hustle  so  to 
get  a  living  that  he  could  at  most  give  but 
fifteen  or  twenty  minutes  to  his  meals.  This 
led  inventors  to  produce  different  foods  and 
preparations  which  could  be  cooked  instan- 
taneously —  that  is,  in  the  very  worst  pos- 
sible way.  Now,  with  us  we  almost  invariably 
use  a  slow,  even  heat  of  a  low  degree.  It 
takes  a  longer  time  to  cook  things,  but  they 
are  more  digestible." 


An  Aerial  Excursion  219 

"When  do  the  watches  go  on  to-night?" 

"  Well,  you  and  I  will  sit  up  till  midnight, 
so  that  we  can  see  the  moon,  and  then  Olsen 
will  take  charge." 

"  Suppose  it  is  cloudy  ?  " 

"  Ha,  ha  !  That  is  pretty  good.  Do  you 
forget  where  we  are  .-'  We  never  mind  clouds, 
—  we  are  superior  beings,  we  rise  above 
them." 

On  deck  again,  I  called  Olsen  to  dinner 
and  took  his  place  until,  one  hour  later,  the 
professor  turned  out.  He  then  took  the 
lever,  and  after  putting  on  a  thick  coat,  for 
it  was  growing  colder,  I  stretched  myself 
along  the  gunwale  with  my  back  against  the 
little  cabin,  lit  my  pipe,  and  prepared  to  enjoy 
the  sunset. 

For  the  first  time  during  the  trip  I  came 
to  a  realization  of  the  stillness  about  me. 
As  the  currents  were  favorable,  the  motors 
ceased  to  work,  and  we  commenced  soaring 
flight,  circling  at  slow  speed  and  drifting 
slowly  northward  with  the  wind.  Below  us 
and  for  miles  on  either  side  was  the  beautiful 
country  forming  the  bed  of  the  Severn,  with 
all  the  numerous  lakes  and  little  streams 
glistening  in  the  waning  sunlight.  We  were 
just  twenty-two  hundred  feet  up  and  had  the 


2  20  The  Great  Awakening 

sun  some  time  after  it  had  set  to  those  on 
the  earth. 

The  sunset  was  not  as  pretty  as  I  had  pre- 
viously seen,  owing  to  a  lack  of  clouds,  but 
still  the  west  was  one  grand  blaze  of  a  glori- 
ous red,  shading  off  through  pink  to  yellows 
and  greens.  The  professor  played  several 
tricks  with  the  machine,  rising  higher  and 
higher  and  giving  me  three  distinct  sunsets. 
Finally  the  sun  disappeared  for  good,  and  the 
light  faded  out. 

All  was  in  darkness  save  for  two  spots  — ■ 
camp  fires,  the  professor  said  they  were,  on 
the  border  of  a  lake  —  and  the  little  points 
of  light  flickered  and  twinkled  like  two  stars. 
Soon  in  the  east  the  moon  —  a  glorious  orb  — 
rushed  into  view  and,  rising  higher  and  higher, 
cast  a  beautifully  mellow  light  over  the  whole 
landscape.  The  scene  was  simply  heavenly. 
Not  a  sound  was  to  be  heard  save  the  gentle 
sighing  of  the  breeze  as  the  air  rushed  past 
the  machine.  Below  us  the  rivers  and  lakes 
shone  out  in  all  their  splendor,  reflecting  the 
silvery  moonbeams  ;  while  on  either  side  fleecy 
clouds  chased  each  other  as  if  in  play  —  dumb 
monsters,  as  it  were,  cavorting  through  the 
air,  and  to  our  eyes  they  assumed  a  thousand 
shapes,  hiding  the  moon  and  then  suddenly 
rushing  away  out  of  sight. 


An  Aerial  Excursion  221 

The  air  was  cold,  the  breeze  light,  and  the 
moon  enchanting.  The  calmness,  the  peace, 
the  sense  of  loneliness  were  a  lullaby,  and 
soon  I  was  asleep. 


CHAPTER    XV. 


I    LEARN    TO    FLY. 


The  next  morning  the  horizon  was  eagerly 
scanned  as  we  were  nearing  our  destination. 
We  were  closer  to  the  earth,  about  eight  hun- 
dred feet  high  I  should  say,  and  we  flew  over 
clearings,  farms,  and  lumber  camps,  every- 
thing being  as  distinct  as  possible.  The  pa- 
trolmen were  above,  below,  and  on  either  side 
of  us,  slowly  circling  and  guarding  their  coun- 
try; and  as  we  passed  we  saluted  them  with 
our  whistle,  and  I  said  to  the  professor,  "  Is 
there  any  danger  from  invasions  or  raids 
here  ?  " 

"  No.  The  patrolmen  act  only  as  police 
and  have  but  little  to  do.  A  policeman's  lot 
is  a  happy  one. 

•'  Olsen,  do  we  not  stop  soon  ?  You  see 
there  on  the  starboard  bow  is  the  Bay." 

Sure  enough,  there  was  Hudson's  Bay  about 
ten  miles  off. 

"  I  can  land  you  almost  anywhere  along 
here,"  said  the  engineer. 


The  Art  of  Flying  223 

"Well,"  said  the  professor,  "  call  a  patrol- 
man and  let  me  talk  to  him  a  minute." 

The  signal  was  given,  a  small  drome  was 
headed  our  way,  and  when  the  patrolman  was 
within  thirty  feet  he  turned,  and  travelling 
aside  of  us,  answered  our  call. 

"  Where  can  we  get  two  small  dromes  .''  " 
said  the  professor,  opening  a  window  and  put- 
ting his  head  out.  "  A  friend  and  myself  wish 
to  take  a  trip  west,  and  we  need  two  ma- 
chines." 

"Go  to  Station  10,  in  this  district,  and  I 
guess  they  can  fit  you  out.  That  is  over  here 
to  the  left."  And  he  pointed  out  the  direc- 
tion. We  thanked  him  and  steered  for  the 
platform.  Down  we  dropped  in  circles,  like  a 
big  vulture,  and  made  a  very  easy  landing. 
Fourteen  hundred  miles  from  where  we 
started,  we  had  been  in  the  air  but  twenty- 
eight  hours.  We  lowered  the  machine  on  the 
elevator,  ran  it  into  a  yard,  and  then  the  pro- 
fessor and  I  started  off  to  see  the  place,  leav- 
ing Olsen  in  charge. 

The  station  had  but  a  few  houses  near  it, 
but  there  were  some  stores  on  the  main  street 
and  one  hotel.  We  wandered  up  and  down 
for  a  while  —  perhaps  for  exercise  as  much  as 
for   anything   else,    as   our   quarters    in    the 


2  24  The  Great  Awakening 

drome  had  been  rather  cramped  and  I  felt  the 
need  of  a  httle  motion  —  and  then  went  into 
the  hotel,  where  we  got  two  rooms.  We  were 
not  long  in  finding  a  pair  of  dromes  just 
suited  to  our  purpose,  but  it  seems  that  we 
had  to  change  our  plans  somewhat.  We 
learned  at  the  hotel  that  there  was  no  pros- 
pect of  good  hunting  nearer  than  the  Rocky- 
Mountains,  and  this  influenced  the  professor 
to  change  his  program.  We  had  intended  to 
camp  in  one  place  for  perhaps  a  month  ;  but 
now  my  friend  thought  it  might  be  best  to 
take  a  journey  to  the  mountains,  from  there 
south  into  the  United  States,  and  from  the 
State  of  Colorado  we  could  made  the  east- 
ward trip  home.  This  necessitated  buying 
two  dromes  especially  made  for  travelling  in 
wild  countries. 

In  the  morning,  after  our  landing,  we  went 
to  our  machine  and  had  our  baggage  carried 
to  the  hotel ;  we  then  said  good-by  to  Olsen, 
who  started  to  fly  back  soon  after  we  left 
him,  and  the  professor  took  me  to  look  at  our 
new  machines,  which,  I  must  say,  were  as 
finely  made  as  any  I  had  ever  seen.  Only 
the  finest  steel,  the  best  silk,  and  the  tough- 
est wood  were  used,  and  the  surfaces  were  in 
three  tiers,  spreading  fourteen  feet  from  tip 


The  Art  of  Flying  225 

to  tip  ;  while  at  the  rear  were  two  very  small 
motors,  driving  screws,  and  the  boat-like  struc- 
ture was  so  made  that  the  bottom  would, 
upon  touching  a  spring,  drop,  permitting  a 
landing  on  the  feet.  Each  machine  was  built 
so  that  at  night,  when  in  camp,  the  boat  be- 
came a  bed,  and  the  man  slept  with  the  protec- 
tion of  the  surfaces  instead  of  a  tent.  The 
whole  affair  when  packed  with  our  kit 
weighed  seventy-five  pounds.  The  balancing 
was  controlled  by  one  lever  which  moved  the 
boat  and  tail,  and  after  explaining  the  ma- 
chine, we  were  taken  into  a  large  'field  and 
taught  how  to  manage  it. 

I  got  into  the  boat  ;  the  machine  was  lifted 
so  that  the  straps  rested  on  -  my  shoulders 
which  supported  the  weight,  and  I  was  then 
standing  with  the  boat  on  a  level  with  my 
waist,  the  bottom,  of  course,  hanging  vertically. 

"Now,"  said  our  friend,  "turn  into  the 
wind,  start  your  motors,  and  when  you  get 
going  at  a  pretty  good  pace  just  raise  the 
front  edge  of  the  wing  a  little." 

I  felt  nervous.  It  was  the  first  time  I  had 
ever  been  harnessed  into  such  a  mess  of 
machinery,  and  I  must  say  I  was  frightened. 
With  others  in  a  large  machine  it  was  different, 
but  now  everything,  perhaps  my  life,  depended 


226  The  Great  Awakening 

upon  my  skill  in  moving  the  lever.  However, 
I  mustered  my  courage,  turned  on  the  elec- 
tricity, and  started  to  run.  The  moment  I 
moved,  the  weight  seemed  gone  from  my 
shoulders ;  the  air  did  all  the  supporting,  and 
as  I  began  to  go  faster  and  faster  I  was  lifted 
higher  and  higher  until  only  my  toes  touched. 
Raising  my  wings  then  and  turning  on  the 
current,  I  arose  with  a  burst  of  speed  and  soon 
was  sailing  fifty  feet  above  the  houses.  I 
drew  in  my  legs,  pulled  up  the  bottom  of  the 
boat,  and  then  looked  about  me.  My  con- 
fidence was  now  completely  restored,  for  the 
machine  answered  the  touch  so  quickly  and  I 
felt  such  support  that  I  had  no  fear  whatso- 
ever ;  and  turning  in  a  great  circle  I  came 
back  and  landed  near  the  professor,  coming 
down  slowly  until  within  a  few  feet  of  the 
ground,  when,  checking  the  momentum,  I 
tripped  the  bottom  of  the  boat  and  landed  on 
my  feet. 

"Well,"  I  said,  "I  am  sure  any  one  can 
manage  that  ;  it  is  simple  enough,  and  the 
sensation  is  delightful." 

"Yes,  it  will  be  very  easy  until  you  get  into 
the  mountains,  where  you  will  meet  cross 
currents  and  gusts  ;  then,  I  tell  you,  it  takes 
as  much   skill  as  it  does  to  sail  a  catboat  on  a 


The  Art  of  Flying  227 

lake  full  of  islands.  You  cannot  tell  when 
the  next  gust  will  come,  and  this  will  intro- 
duce an  element  of  danger  which  will  call 
forth  all  your  ability." 

Our  dromes  were  so  satisfactory  that  the 
professor  bought  them  outright  ;  and  our  friend 
said  he  would  have  them  examined  to  see  that 
everything  was  in  perfect  order,  the  machinery 
well  oiled,  and  our  kit  packed  snugly  away. 
We  then  went  back  to  the  hotel  and  spent 
the  rest  of  the  day  in  studying  maps. 

"  I  shall  carry  only  a  small  stock  of  pro- 
visions, mostly  canned  goods,"  said  the  pro- 
fessor. "  We  will  depend  upon  our  own  skill 
for  fresh  meat,  and  it  will  be  very  strange 
indeed  if  we  cannot  get  a  deer  or  two,  or 
perhaps  a  bear." 

"  How  long  a  time  will  our  journey  take 
us .''  " 

"  Well,  that  will  depend  on  circumstances. 
I  am  in  no  hurry,  and  we  can  take  things 
leisurely." 

"  Shall  we  camp  by  ourselves  or  near  some 
station  ? " 

"  I  was  just  now  trying  to  find  on  this  map 
what  were  the  best  plan  for  us  to  pursue.  I 
think  we  will  stop  at  this  station  first,  and  then 
we  will  go  direct  to  the  mountains  and  camp 


228  The  Great  Awakening 

wherever  we  happen  to  be.  That  will  be 
freer  and  in  many  ways  more  pleasant."  I, 
of  course,  was  willing  to  leave  everything  to 
the  professor,  and  all  was  prepared  for  the 
start  on  the  morrow. 

I  was  up  bright  and  early  on  that  beautiful 
September  morning,  and  was  sitting  on  the 
piazza  when  the  professor  came  down.  "  A 
fine  morning  for  us,  is  it  not .''  I  tell  you,  a 
day's  fly  in  such  weather  as  this  braces  a  man 
up  in  great  style.  Come  in  and  have  break- 
fast. I  have  settled  the  bill,  and  as  soon  as 
we  can  we  must  get  into  the  air." 

We  ate  a  hearty  meal,  and  taking  a  light 
lunch  the  cook  had  prepared  for  us,  which  we 
would  eat  while  flying,  we  hurried  to  our 
machines,  where  we  found  everything  ready. 
The  canned  provisions  with  the  cooking  uten- 
sils were  stowed  away  in  the  boats,  also  some 
extra  clothing,  medicines,  and  other  necessities. 

"  Your  kerosene  will  last  a  month,"  said 
our  friend,  "  and  if  you  can  manage  to  soar 
most  of  the  time  it  will  last  much  longer  ;  but 
you  must  be  careful  not  to  run  out  of  it,  for 
if  you  did,  and  landed  on  level  ground,  you 
would  be  as  stranded  as  a  dismantled  ship." 
We  made  our  final  preparations,  stepped  into 
the  harness,  and  raised  our  machines.     The 


The  Art  of  Flying  229 

professor  started  first  and  with  a  short  run 
rose  gently  from  the  ground,  and  flying  higher 
and  higher  went  off  towards  the  west.  I 
soon  followed,  and  caught  him  about  eight 
hundred  feet  up.  "  The  air  is  fine,  professor." 
"  Yes,  very  exhilarating.  We  must  make 
good  time,  for  I  want  to  be  at  our  destination 
before  night." 

Our  trip  was  now  very  similar  to  the  one 
from  the  States.  The  little  silvery  lakes  below 
us,  cosily  nestling  in  the  deep  valleys  heavily 
wooded  with  tall,  stately  pines,  shone  like 
jewels  in  the  morning  sunlight.  On  some  of 
the  hillsides  the  foliage  had  begun  to  change, 
and  from  our  position  the  whole  earth  seemed 
one  grand  oriental  rug  of  fantastic  design, 
but  full  of  beautifully  rich  and  soft  colors.  I 
was  lost  in  the  contemplation  of  these  natural 
beauties. 

The  professor  kept  about  one  hundred  yards 
ahead,  and  I  could  see  by  the  revolution  of  the 
screws  that  he  was  going  pretty  fast.  How- 
ever, I  had  no  trouble  in  keeping  up  with  him. 
We  passed  one  or  two  patrolmen  and  a  few 
private  dromes,  and  on  one  occasion  the  pro- 
fessor called  my  attention  to  a  chase  which 
was  going  on  between  a  hunter  and  an  eagle. 
The  man  was  in  a  small  drome  and  was  about 


230  The  Great  Awakening 

two  hundred  yards  behind  an  enormous  eagle, 
which  was  flying  as  hard  as  it  could  for  the 
shelter  of  a  thick  wood  about  a  mile  away. 
The  man  gained  slowly,  and  the  chase  grew 
very  exciting.  I  judged  the  range  was  too  far 
to  use  the  pistol,  although  through  my  glass  I 
could  see  that  the  man  held  it  in  his  hand,  every 
now  and  then  aimed,  but  apparently  thought 
better  of  it,  for  I  heard  no  report.  Just  as 
the  eagle  reached  the  woods  the  man  aimed 
again,  and  this  time  the  feathers  flew,  but  still 
the  eagle  kept  on,  and  before  the  man  could 
fire  again  the  noble  bird  settled  down  into  the 
thick  branches,  hid  himself  in  the  depths  of 
the  forest,  and  the  man  rose  and  flew  away, 
apparently  not  caring  to  wait  until  the  bird 
showed  himself  again. 

"  Chasing  eagles  is  great  sport, "  said  the 
professor.  "You  cannot  possibly  catch  one, 
you  know,  for  they  turn  so  quickly  that  they 
will  always  elude  the  grasp;  but  you  can, 
however,  shoot  them  on  the  wing.  I  fre- 
quently chase  them  to  within  fifty  feet  and 
then  fire." 

"Did  that  man  fire  ?     I  heard  no  noise." 

"Of  course  you  didn't.  He  uses  liquified 
air.     We  never  use  powder." 

At  noon  we  ate  our   lunches,  and  before 


The  Art  of  Flying  23 1 

sunset  the  police  station  came  into  view. 
Nothing  happened  during  the  rest  of  the 
afternoon,  and  we  came  to  a  landing  about 
five  o'clock.  This  station  was  settled  only  by 
hunters  and  trappers,  and  there  were  only  a 
few  cabins  near  by.  We  set  our  machines 
down  in  a  vacant  field,  and  after  pegging 
down  the  guide  ropes  to  hold  them  firmly  in 
case  of  wind,  we  went  up  to  a  large  cabin 
which  the  professor  said  belonged  to  a  hunting 
club  of  which  he  was  a  member,  and  arranged 
for  dinner.  The  cabin  was  a  two-story  affair 
and  very  large.  On  the  first  floor  were 
kitchen,  dining  room,  and  parlor,  with  an 
enormous  open  fireplace ;  and  on  the  second 
floor  were  bunks  to  accommodate  members 
and  their  guests.  As  we  had  an  hour  to  our- 
selves before  dinner,  we  wandered  out  into 
the  country  to  look  round. 

"Does  the  same  system  of  finance  prevail 
here  as  in  the  States  .''  " 

"Why,  of  course.  If  any  man  here  shows 
that  he  has  increased  the  wealth  of  the 
country,  necessarily  he  is  entitled  to  his  share 
of  the  money  issued  on  that  increase." 

"  It  is  all  very  well  to  say  that  he  is  entitled 
to  it,  but  how  is  the  increase  determined  in 
this  barren  country,  where  there  is  but  little 
manufacturing .'' " 


232  The  Great  Awakening 

"  Why  I  thought  you  understood  that  per- 
fectly. Let  me  make  it  clear  once  more.  If 
the  sum  of  the  prices  of  all  salable  goods 
at  one  time  is  1,000  units  and  a  month  later 
is  1,020  units,  it  is  evident  that  the  increase 
has  been  twenty  units.  Don't  get  confused 
at  our  word  unit.  It  is  equivalent  to  your 
word  dollar,  except  that  it  stands  for  no 
special  commodity.  Reports  are  sent  east  from 
this  station  as  from  all  others,  and,  if  after  a 
certain  time  the  wealth  represented  does  not 
increase,  there  is  naturally  an  investigation,  as 
this  lack  of  increase  means  that  every  one 
gets  less  money  monthly  than  he  otherwise 
would.  If  the  cause  of  this  condition  is  in 
nature  it  is  accepted  ;  if  it  comes  from  idle- 
ness or  a  desire  of  the  residents  of  one  station 
to  live  on  the  wealth  produced  by  the  other 
stations  the  issue  of  money  to  that  particular 
station  is  discontinued,  generally  by  a  popular 
vote.  Of  course  the  amount  of  money  issued 
to  any  one  station  is  dependent  upon  the 
number  of  workers,  male  and  female,  over 
twenty-one  years  of  age,  in  that  station.  This 
number  is  determined  by  popular  vote,  and 
any  man  who  by  any  act  brought  himself 
into  popular  disfavor  would  be  very  liable  to 
have  his   name   erased  from   the  lists  for  a 


The  Art  of  Flying  233 

period.  As  our  population  is  spread  over  the 
country,  we  have  a  pure  democracy.  A  repre- 
sentative government  is  necessary  only  when 
population  concentrates  itself  in  cities." 

"  But  your  national  government  is  surely 
representative  ? " 

"  Not  as  you  understand  that  form  of  gov- 
ernment. There  are  very  few  acts  our  gov- 
ernment is  called  upon  to  perform.  If  there 
should  be  any  act  which  is  of  such  impor- 
tance as  to  need  national  attention,  then  it 
would  be  put  to  a  popular  vote  and  decided 
in. that  way." 

"  But  the  expenses  and  duties  of  the 
government .''  Who  attends  to  the  appropria- 
tions .''  How  is  it  decided  what  shall  be 
spent  to  deepen  this  river,  to  improve  that 
harbor,  to  build  up  a  navy,  to  care  for  light- 
houses, and  so  on.-*" 

"  Well,  it  is  strange  that  you  cannot  under- 
stand. I  suppose  it  is  excusable,  however, 
since  you  were  born  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. To  do  that  which  you  mention  only 
two  things  are  necessary  —  labor  and  material. 
Do  you  follow  .?  " 

"  Yes." 

"  Well,  since  no  one  by  ownership  can 
monopolize  material,   it  is  evident    that   can 


234  The  Great  Awakening 

be  obtained  without  any  trouble  ;  and  the  only 
other  question  is,  Will  the  laborer  be  willing 
to  work  ?  Now,  what  was  it  that  set  labor  at 
work  in  your  day  ?  " 

"  Why,  money,  of  course.  The  laborers 
worked  for  their  pay." 

"  Exactly.  The  same  is  true  now.  If  to 
deepen  a  river,  improve  a  harbor,  build  up  a 
navy,  and  keep  a  lighthouse  service  will  aid  in 
any  way  to  produce  more  wealth,  either  di- 
rectly or  indirectly,  that  is,  by  improving  the 
methods  of  transportation,  then  to  do  that 
work  will,  evidently,  increase  the  periodical 
issue  of  money  ;  and  since  every  one  profits 
by  that  increase,  those  works,  if  necessary  to 
the  public  good,  will  be  undertaken  without 
any  national  action,  and,  if  not  necessary,  in- 
dustry will  stay  in  more  productive  channels. 
A  very  strong  example  of  the  reverse  condi- 
tion existed  in  the  States  in  your  time,  when 
industry  was  forced  into  unproductive  chan- 
nels. The  doctrine  of  protection  prevailed 
then.  Protective  tariffs,  by  preventing  for- 
eign trade,  raised  the  price  of  American  goods 
by  just  the  amount  of  tariff  levied.  This 
raise  was  an  extra  profit  to  the  manufacturer, 
so  that  the  strongest  force  behind  the  doc- 
trine of  protection  was  the  selfish  interest  of 
the  manufacturers. 


The  Art  of  Flying  235 

"  But  there  was  a  condition  of  affairs 
brought  about  partly  by  protection,  especially 
in  the  days  when  the  country  was  young,  and 
partly  by  the  scarcity  of  population  and 
natural  productiveness  of  the  soil,  which  gave 
protection  a  popular  following.  This  was  the 
more  equable  distribution  of  wealth  and  the 
higher  wages  paid  to  American  labor  than 
was  paid  to  foreign  labor  in  Europe.  The 
exact  cause  of  these  two  facts  was  not  clearly 
understood,  and  therefore,  the  latter  condition 
existing  with  protection,  this  doctrine  was 
assumed  to  be  the  cause  of  it. 

"  Now,  the  fundamental  effect  of  the  doc- 
trine of  protection  is  to  prevent  the  growth 
of  trade." 

"It  only  affects  foreign  trade,  professor." 

"  That  is  not  so.  It  hampers  home  trade. 
If  the  people  on  the  border  of  a  country  are 
allowed  to  increase  their  trade  with  their 
neighbors  who  live  over  the  line,  it  means 
they  must  increase  it  with  their  own  country- 
men, as  otherwise  what  will  they  do  with  the 
extra  wealth  derived  from  this  increase  of 
trade .''  The  absurdity  of  the  proposition 
that  a  protective  tariff  is  necessary  to  stimu- 
late home  industries  ought  to  be  evident  on 
its  face,   it  seems  to  me.     Just  think  a  mo- 


236  The  Great  Awakening 

ment  Suppose  I  live  half  a  mile  south  of 
the  frontier.  North  of  me  a  foreigner  lives, 
a  mile  away.  To  the  east,  south,  and  west 
live  my  countrymen,  each  a  mile  from  me. 
Now,  from  the  proposition  I  just  stated  to 
you,  I  assume  —  and  of  course  no  one  will 
deny  —  that  it  is  a  good  thing  to  increase 
home  industries.  Now,  suppose  that  I  trade 
with  my  friend  in  the  east  so  much  that  in 
order  to  get  rid  of  the  goods  I  receive  from 
him  for  some  I  need  more  I  have  to  trade 
with  my  friend  in  the  south.  There  is  a  case 
where  an  increase  of  trade  with  one  man 
brings  about  an  increase  of  trade  with  an- 
other man.  And  this  always  happens  when 
trade  increases  anywhere.  Is  there,  now, 
any  man  in  his  senses  who  will  deny  that  if 
I  choose  to  increase  trade  by  trading  with  my 
friend  in  the  north  instead  of  trading  with 
my  friend  in  the  east,  neither  of  my  friends 
in  the  east,  south,  or  west  will  profit  thereby  .-* 
What  difference  does  it  make  where  a  man 
lives .''  Individuals,  not  nations,  are  traders. 
No,  protection  has  hampered,  not  stimulated, 
industry  ;  but  if  you  hamper  industry  and 
prevent  its  growth,  you  will  keep  wealth  more 
equally  divided  and  limit  the  foundation  of 
class   distinctions,  because  when  industry  is 


The  Art  of  Flying  237 

young,  the  amount  of  circulating  medium  is 
very  large  in  proportion.  This  means  that 
the  dollar  is  easy  to  get,  therefore  it  cannot 
be  controlled  by  the  few,  therefore  there  is 
no  monied  aristocracy  ;  for  a  monied  aristoc- 
racy means  a  class  of  beings  who  live  by 
lending  that  which  is  absolutely  essential  to 
life  and  of  which  they  have  a  monopoly  — 
that  is,  money. 

"  There  is,  however,  a  limit  to  this.  With 
an  increasing  population  trade  must  increase, 
so  it  is  only  when  a  country  is  young  that  the 
force  caused  by  protection  acts  ;  and  we  see 
that  at  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century  this 
force  was  dead,  class  distinctions  existed,  and 
the  popular  following  of  protection  was  grow- 
ing less  and  less.  Wages  in  your  country 
were  sinking  to  the  level  of  those  in  Europe 
during  that  decade,  and  early  in  the  twentieth 
century  it  became  evident  to  the  popular  mind 
that  protection  protected  nobody  but  the  mo- 
nopolist manufacturer.  Of  course  then  it  was 
immediately  overthrown.  The  protectionists 
up  to  that  time  had  always  deluded  the  people 
with  the  belief  that  if  you  pay  a  manufacturer 
a  big  profit,  he  will,  out  of  the  kindness  of 
his  heart,  pay  big  wages.  When  your  coun- 
try was  young  and  men  scarce,  he  paid  big 


238  The  Great  Awakening 

wages,  but  it  was  not  from  the  kindness  of 
his  heart,  —  a  protectionist  is  not  that  sort  of 
a  man ;  it  was  because  he  had  to.  When 
the  population  increased  he  could  get  men 
easier,  and  wages  fell,  which  was  natural  in 
a  civilization  where  labor  was  treated  as  a 
commodity  to  be  bought  and  sold  by  the  capi- 
talist." 

"  Well,  professor,  you  mentioned  a  condi- 
tion in  which  the  dollar  was  easy  to  get,  and 
which  you  say  is  a  beneficial  one.  Do  you 
mean  to  say  that  high  prices  are  a  good 
thing .-" " 

"  That  depends  upon  what  causes  the  high 
prices." 

"  Explain." 

"  Why,  price  —  or  rather,  market  value, 
which  is  a  better  term  to  use  —  depends  upon 
the  ratio  between  the  quantity  of  goods  of- 
fered for  sale  and  the  quantity  of  money 
offered  to  buy.  Mind  you,  the  amount  of 
money  in  existence,  or  in  circulation,  as  it  was 
erroneously  called  in  your  day,  has  little  to  do 
with  this.  I  might  own  a  million  dollars  and 
have  it  stowed  away  somewhere  so  that  it 
could  not  possibly  affect  market  values,  but  it 
would  be  in  circulation,  as  you  understood  the 
word.     Now,  decrease  the  quantity  of  goods 


The  Art  of  Flying  239 

and,  other  things  being  equal,  market  value 
will  go  up.  The  same  will  happen  if,  instead 
of  the  latter,  you  increase  the  quantity  of 
money.  The  former  is  the  way  the  protec- 
tionists would  keep  prices  up,  the  latter  the 
way  the  bimetallists  would  do  the  same.  Be- 
tween the  two  it  is  easy  to  choose.  As  popu- 
lation increases  trade  must  increase,  therefore 
we  cannot  decrease  the  quantity  of  goods  of- 
fered ;  the  other  is  the  right  way." 

"  But  are  high  prices,  even  from  this  cause, 
a  desirable  thing,  professor  ,■'  " 

"  Yes,  the  more  money,  the  weaker  the 
syndicates  that  try  to  control  it.  It  is  like 
everything  else — a  little  may  be  controlled, 
but  not  a  large  amount." 

"  But  how  are  people  to  get  this  money  ? 
Of  course  I  understand  how  your  system 
works  ;  but  in  my  time,  when  the  people  were 
not  prepared  for  such  a  radical  change,  how 
would  the  masses  gain  by  an  increase  in  the 
amount  of  circulating  medium  ?  If  the  own- 
ers of  silver  mines  were  allowed  to  have  all 
their  silver  coined  free,  as  gold  was,  how  would 
it  benefit  any  one  but  those  owners .''  Why 
could  you  not  say  of  them,  as  of  the  protec- 
tionists. They  could  pay  higher  wages,  but  they 
will  not .''" 


240  The  Great  Awakening 

"  Well,  let  us  examine  for  a  moment. 
When  the  United  States  refused  to  coin  silver 
free  and  in  unlimited  amounts,  the  largest 
buyer  of  silver  in  the  country  refused  to  pay 
one  dollar  for  4 1 2  grains  of  silver,  and  there- 
fore the  price  to  other  buyers  —  that  is,  the 
market  value  —  fell.  The  price  of  anything 
in  your  day  generally  fluctuated  around  that 
of  the  heaviest  buyer.  Silver  declined  to  fifty 
cents  per  412  grains.  Now,  supposing  an 
owner  of  bullion  gets  from  his  mines  100 
pounds  a  day,  just  for  the  sake  of  an  example, 
and  supposing,  at  fifty  cents  per  4 1 2  grains,  it 
costs  him  90  pounds  of  silver  to  get  out  the 
100  pounds.  If  he  could  get  from  the 
United  States  one  dollar  for  412  grains,  it  is 
evident  it  would  cost  him  only  45  pounds  of 
silver  to  get  out  the  100  pounds.  Now,  after 
he  has  sold  the  extra  45  pounds,  what  is  he 
going  to  do  with  the  money  ?  He  will  cer- 
tainly use  it,  he  is  not  a  fool.  He  will  invest 
it  in  some  other  business  to  make  it  pay  him 
interest.  Now,  if  he  does  not  pay  his  men 
more  —  and  he  will  not  do  so  —  he  cannot 
help  but  increase  wages,  for  by  starting  other 
businesses  he  will  create  a  demand  for  labor 
which  will  raise  the  price  ;  and  in  fact,  any 
increase  of  legal  tender  money  will    always 


The  Art  of  Flying  241 

raise  wages  by  increasing  the  demand  for 
labor." 

"  But  a  protectionist,  with  his  extra  profits, 
would  do  the  same." 

"  He  cannot  increase  wages  ;  he  can  only 
divert  wages  from  some  people  to  other 
people,  for  the  money  which  he  got  was  in 
existence  before  he  got  it.  But  the  free  and 
unrestricted  coinage  of  silver  would  have 
caused  the  same  result  in  your  country  as 
would  come  from  a  great  inundation  of  foreign 
capital  seeking  investment.  The  gold  men  of 
your  time  were  very  glad  when  foreign  capital 
was  invested  in  their  country,  and  spoke  of 
the  prosperity  which  would  follow  a  condition 
where  foreign  capital  was  not  afraid  to  invest  ; 
how  much  better  then  to  have  the  investors 
in  one's  own  country,  then  interest  stays  at 
home.  This  could  easily  have  been  brought 
about  by  free  silver. 

"  Early  in  the  twentieth  century  the  United 
States  became  very  similar  to  the  tributary 
states  of  the  Roman  Empire.  Having  the 
gold  standard,  the  capital  used  in  your  coun- 
try was  owned  abroad,  which  would  not  have 
been  the  case  if  you  had  been  on  a  silver 
basis  ;  and  Europe  constantly  drained  the 
United  States  as  the  city  of   Rome  drained 


242  The  Great  Awakening 

the  outlying  districts.  This  is  our  main 
reason  for  calhng  the  nineteenth  and  twentieth 
centuries  the  Era  of  Degeneration.  It  was 
the  era  when  the  older  civilizations  led  a  life 
of  profligacy,  living  on  the  interest  drawn  from 
the  younger  ;  and,  as  in  Rome  this  decay  led 
to  the  downfall  of  the  Roman  civilization,  so 
this  Era  of  Degeneration  led  to  the  Chaotic 
Era  —  the  downfall  of  the  western  civilization 
in  which  the  rights  of  property  was  the  abiding 
watchword.  Then  followed  our  civilization 
with  our  scientific  scheme  of  finance,  giving 
to  each,  no  matter  what  his  birth,  equal  oppor- 
tunities. I  suppose  our  civilization  will  have 
its  rise  and  fall  just  as  others  have.  There  is 
nothing  perfect  —  everything  is  constantly 
undergoing  a  change.  Mutability  is  an  im- 
mutable law  of  nature.  But  here,"  said  the 
professor,  "  we  must  stop  talking  and  get 
back  to  dinner." 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE  MYSTERIES  OF  FINANXE  UNRAVELLED. 

After  dinner  we  were  entertained  with  hunt- 
ing stories;  and  seated,  smoking,  around  the 
fire,  it  was  very  enjoyable  listening  to  the 
anecdotes  of  the  various  members,  who,  in  a 
gathering  like  this,  always  delight  in  talking 
over  old  experiences  ;  and  many  interesting 
stories  of  hairbreadth  escapes  and  difficult 
manoeuvres  accomplished  in  the  flying  machine 
were  told.  These  men  did  all  their  hunting 
in  the  flying  machine,  and  I  gained  from  them 
much  valuable  information  concerning  the 
management  of  the  apparatus. 

Early  next  morning  we  were  in  the  air. 
The  day  was  windy,  and  numerous  hea\y 
clouds  floated  by ;  I  found  some  difficulty 
with  the  machine  during  this  day's  journey, 
for  the  counter  currents  up  and  down  made 
it  extremely  difficult  to  keep  a  straight  course. 
But  early  in  the  afternoon  we  rose  into  an 
easterly  wind  and  had  the  satisfaction  of  travel- 
ling towards  the  Rockies  at  the  tremendous 
243 


244  The  Great  Awakening 

speed  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  an  hour. 
We  were  very  high  —  about  3,300  feet  above 
the  ground,  I  should  say  —  and  the  air  was  very 
cold.  At  about  five  o'clock  we  crossed  the 
Saskatchawan  River  and  reached  the  range 
where  we  were  to  camp  that  night.  We 
dropped  nearer  the  earth,  circled  round  to  find 
a  convenient  spot ;  and  after  crossing  one  or 
two  valleys,  the  professor  found  one  to  his 
liking,  and  we  finally  landed  on  a  small  cliff 
which  jutted  out  from  the  side  of  a  mountain. 
The  descent  of  this  cliff  was  precipitous  for 
about  fifty  feet,  which  afforded  us  a  fine 
tower  from  which  to  get  under  way.  Upon 
landing,  the  professor  guyed  the  machine 
firmly  to  the  ground  and  got  out  the  cooking 
utensils  to  prepare  dinner. 

"  I  intend  to  take  my  rod  and  see  if  I  can 
get  something  out  of  the  stream  below  us. 
It  looks  as  if  it  might  hold  trout  or  even  sal- 
mon. If  you  wish,  you  may  get  some  wood 
and  build  a  camp  fire  and  make  the  coffee." 

The  professor  then  got  out  his  rod  and 
flies  and  went  off  through  the  woods  to  work 
his  way  down  into  the  valley.  I  took  the 
hatchet  and  soon  had  a  good  wood  pile. 
I  then  set  to  work  and  made  a  roaring  fire 
on  the  top  of    the  cliff,  some  way  from  the 


Mysteries  Unravelled  245 

machines.  While  the  logs  were  burning  them- 
selves to  embers,  I  sauntered  off  with  my 
glass  to  view  the  surrounding  country.  The 
scenery  was  grand  and  impressive,  but  rugged 
and  with  little  vegetation,  and  I  cannot  de- 
scribe exactly  the  sensations  I  felt  while  stand- 
ing alone  on  this  cliff,  hundreds  of  miles  from 
any  habitation ;  for  had  I  been  without  my 
aerodrome,  I  should  have  realized  my  loneli- 
ness, I  should  have  felt  the  weakness  of  man. 
But  how  could  I  have  those  thoughts  when  I 
knew  that  the  height  of  these  giant  cliffs  was 
as  nothing  to  the  height  to  which  I  could  soar  ? 
I  could  not  hold  these  mountains,  these  works 
of  nature,  in  awe  because  of  their  size ;  had  I 
not  just  come  from  the  skies  far  above  them.-* 
Surely  the  works  of  man  are  greater  by  far 
than  any  that  nature  ever  made.  When  in 
my  time  poor  man  had  to  struggle  over 
rocks,  through  thickets,  and  toil  wearily  for 
hours  to  reach  the  summit  of  these  mountains, 
the  view  then  to  him  was  magnificent.  It 
filled  him  with  awe  and  reverence  for  nature ; 
it  strengthened  his  belief  in  God.  Why  was 
this  ?  Simply  because  of  the  toil  necessary 
to  attain  the  end.  If  we  toil  earnestly  to 
reach  the  goal,  how  much  sweeter  is  the 
attainment !     The  more  laborious  the  effort, 


246  The  Great  Awakening 

the  sweeter  the  final  pleasure.  But  in  the 
twenty-second  century  this  feeling  of  awe  and 
reverence  for  nature's  works  has  died  out. 
It  does  not  exist.  No  difficulty  which  nature 
can  make  is  so  great  that  man  cannot  over- 
come it.  The  commonplace  is  not  reverenced ; 
so  now  these  beauties  are  seen  so  often  and 
by  so  many  people  that  they  are  accepted  as 
a  matter  of  course  and  are  rarely  commented 
upon.  The  guide,  who,  during  his  whole  life, 
has  travelled  one  mountain  accepts  its  beauties, 
for  to  him  they  are  part  of  the  everyday  con- 
ditions of  life ;  it  is  only  those  to  whom  the 
view  is  novel  who  comment,  admire,  and 
revere. 

The  professor  came  back  with  half  a  dozen 
trout,  and  soon  they  were  sizzling  in  the  pan. 
After  a  hearty  meal  we  built  a  roaring  fire, 
and,  lying  on  our  blankets,  lighted  our  pipes. 

"  Professor,"  I  said,  "  in  what  way  does 
your  civilization  change  the  life  of  women  .-'" 

"  Well,  in  the  first  place,  the  inventions 
and  improvements  in  the  conveniences  and 
methods  of  domestic  life  lighten  their  work 
tremendously,  and  with  us  no  woman  is  de- 
pendent upon  a  man  for  support,  and,  there- 
fore her  right  of  bestowing  her  love  freely  is 
not  questioned.     Of  course  you  must  realize 


Mysteries  Unravelled  247 

that  these  conditions  can  only  exist  where  the 
act  of  birth  gives  the  right  of  life.  In  your 
time  this  was  not  so.  To  be  born  did  not 
necessarily  mean  that  you  would  be  allowed  to 
live.  If  you  were  smart  enough  you  might 
get  on,  especially  in  a  new  country  where  pop- 
ulation was  scanty  ;  but  if  born  in  an  old  coun- 
try you  would  have  to  fight,  tooth  and  nail, 
for  existence.  The  rights  of  birth  were  pe- 
culiar in  your  day.  You  did  not  charge  the 
son  with  the  moral  sins  of  the  father,  but  you 
did  charge  him  with  the  industrial  sins.  You 
could  not  see  that  one  was  as  great  a  wrong 
as  the  other." 

"  Just  what  do  you  mean  by  industrial 
sins .'' " 

"  Why,  if  the  father  was  lazy  or  extrava- 
gant, that  sin  was  felt  by  the  son,  for  lazy  or 
extravagant  people  could  not  keep  much 
money,  and,  as  a  consequence,  the  child  suf- 
fered in  home  environment  and  from  lack  of 
education.  Now,  in  your  day  no  one  would 
deny  that  a  lazy  man  deserved  less  than  an 
industrious  one ;  but  why,  in  God's  name, 
should  the  lazy  man's"  son  be  made  to  suffer 
for  the  father's  fault  .-*  You  see,  your  system 
caused  class  distinctions  to  grow  wider  and 
wider  apart  every  day,  so  that  in  old  countries 


248  The  Great  Awakening 

the  child  born  in  the  lower  classes  must  re- 
main there,  unless  by  some  freak  of  nature  he 
had  sufficient  genius  to  force  his  way  to  the 
front.  The  early  years  of  a  child's  life,  say 
from  five  to  twenty,  are  of  such  tremendous 
importance  that  home  environment  almost  in- 
variably moulds  his  character  in  those  fifteen 
years.  Now,  the  ease  with  which  money  can 
be  obtained  at  that  period  is  of  vast  impor- 
tance, for  the  reason  that  if  the  father  can 
with  little  work  procure  sufficient  to  clothe 
and  nourish  his  family,  the  remaining  result 
of  his  labor  can  be  spent  on  education  and  the 
satisfaction  of  the  mental  appetites  ;  but  if 
to  barely  live  takes  all  the  father's  energy, 
then  the  children  have  no  sort  of  bringing  up, 
and  if  they  follow  in  their  father's  footsteps, 
it  is  not  from  heredity,  but  because  their  early 
environment  has  so  directed  them.  The  lower 
classes  of  society  increase  very  rapidly  for  the 
reason  that  men  and  women  who  by  their  po- 
sition in  life  are  denied  the  benefits  of  an  edu- 
cation, and  are,  therefore,  denied  the  host  of 
intellectual  pleasures  given  to  many,  have  re- 
course to  the  pleasures  of  the  animal  feelings, 
which  in  their  class  are  strongly  developed. 
On  the  other  hand,  an  intellectual,  cultured 
woman,  because  she  cares  less  for  the  physical 


Mysteries  Unravelled  249 

and  sensual,  and  more  for  the  mental  pleas- 
ures, is  less  prolific  than  her  uncultured  sister. 
The  difference  in  culture  was  caused  by  the 
financial  system.  In  your  day  it  was  thought 
that  the  dearest  money  was  the  very  best 
money,  and  the  reason  for  that  idea  was  evi- 
dent. There  was  a  large  class  of  people  who 
existed  by  lending  this  money  ;  and  as  they 
existed  by  lending  and  not  working  they  had 
leisure,  and  as  they  had  leisure  they  had  time 
for  culture.  They  knew,  of  course,  that  if 
any  steps  were  taken  whereby  a  man  could 
procure  from  the  government  legal  tender 
money  without  working  for  it,  they  would  no 
longer  find  borrowers  of  their  money,  and, 
therefore,  they  could  not  live  by  lending,  for 
no  one  would  pay  interest.  Of  course,  there 
were,  undoubtedly,  many  widows  and  old  peo- 
ple who  deserved  an  income  without  working 
for  it,  and,  under  your  system,  the  only  way 
to  get  that  was  to  lend  a  necessity  and  charge 
interest.  But  with  us  they  are  given  pen- 
sions direct  from  the  government." 

"  Well,  what  is  the  difference  ?  With  us, 
we  owned  stocks  and  bonds  and  got  interest, 
and  with  you,  we  own  the  right  to  a  pension. 
In  both  cases,  we  have  the  privilege  of  making 
people  work  for  us." 


250  The  Great  Awakening 

"  Why,  there  is  a  vast  difference.  Any 
one  could  own  stocks  and  bonds  in  your  time, 
no  matter  whether  or  not  he  was  young  and 
able  to  earn  his  own  living  ;  so  that  a  large 
number  of  energetic  men  spent  their  energies, 
not  in  earning,  that  is,  producing,  but  in 
spending,  and  this  spending  was  almost  invari- 
ably along  useless  and  wasteful  channels, 
forcing  labor  into  industries  that  catered 
to  the  few,  but  which  produced  nothing  of 
value  to  the  real  worker.  With  us  no  one 
can  live  by  lending,  for  we  take  good  care 
that  no  one  has  a  monopoly  of  any  essential 
thing.  The  only  people  who  have  the  right 
to  live  on  the  rest  of  us  are  the  aged,  who  have 
worked  hard  in  their  day  and  now  deserve  a 
happy  old  age,  free  from  the  cares  and  worries 
of  life.  There  are  two  periods  in  the  life 
of  every  human  being  when  the  simple  fact  of 
his  existence  gives  him  the  right  to  demand 
care  and  kindness  from  his  fellow  creatures. 
These  two  periods  are  infancy  and  old  age. 
But  the  greatest  evil  in  your  time  came  not 
from  the  fact  that  to  own  money  was  to  live 
on  interest,  but  that  to  own  money  was  to  con- 
trol industry.  It  was  not  so  great  an  evil 
that  one  man  should  have  a  large  income  and 
do  nothing,  as  that  that  man  should  be  able  to 


Mysteries  Unravelled  251 

control  the  lives  of  the  thousands  of  men,  and 
therefore  the  lives  of  their  families,  m  his  em- 
ploy, and  divert  industry  into  any  channel, 
regardless  of  whether  it  produced  a  permanent 
or  a  useless  form  of  wealth.  And  this  state  of 
affairs  was  based  upon  the  rights  of  property. 
Why,  do  you  imagine,  did  you  have  periodic 
panics  in  your  time  ?  Do  you  suppose  it  was 
because  the  workers  had  got  tired  of  earning 
their  living  ?  Because  they  enjoyed  starving .? 
No,  a  thousand  times,  no !  It  was  because 
the  controllers  of  the  business  were  afraid  of 
losses  to  their  own  pockets.  No  one  can  ob- 
ject to  a  man's  making  strenuous  efforts  to 
avert  personal  loss;  but  when  these  efforts 
affect  the  lives  of  thousands,  they  must  be 
considered." 

"  But  a  personal  loss  to  the  capitalist  means 
a  loss  to  the  laborer  too,  for  labor  cannot 
work  to  advantage  without  capital." 

"  Very  true  ;  but  labor  can  get  on  most 
beautifully  without  the  capitalist,  although  it 
needs  capital.  Of  course  the  action  of  one 
man  does  not  help  things  much,  and  in  times 
of  panic  the  generosity  of  one  man  and  the 
confidence  of  one  man  can  do  but  little  to  stem 
the  torrent  ;  but  the  error  was  in  having  such 
a  system  that  panics  could   occur.     Such  a 


252  The  Great  Awakening 

system  belongs  only  to  savages,  and  has  no 
place  among  civilized  nations.  Your  credit 
system  I  am  speaking  of  now  —  a  system 
where  the  amount  of  legal  tender  money  is 
limited,  with  a  result  of  the  expansion  of  the 
amount  of  credit  money,  entirely  under  the 
control  of  those  who  own  the  legal  tender 
money,  to  meet  the  demands  of  trade.  This 
credit  money  is  handled  and  controlled  by  the 
bankers  for  their  own  profit,  and  of  course 
there  comes  a  time  when  its  extension  must 
cease ;  discounts  are  stopped,  down  goes  the 
whole  fabric,  and  the  bankers,  if  any  do,  get 
out  without  loss.  As  I  look  back  at  it  now, 
the  whole  system  seems  ridiculously  absurd 
and  unjust ;  but  we  must  understand  that  its 
existence  had  a  place  in  evolution,  and  that  so 
long  as  people  thought  it  a  just  system,  just 
so  long  were  those  people  entirely  unfit  to 
live  in  a  better  civilization.  The  era  which 
we  call  the  Era  of  Degeneration,  and  which 
embraces  the  eighteenth,  nineteenth,  and  twen- 
tieth centuries,  was  of  tremendous  value  on 
account  of  the  material  progress  made.  The 
number  of  profit-making,  generally  called  labor- 
saving,  inventions  in  your  time  was  enormous, 
the  progress  in  the  arts  and  sciences  was 
wonderful,  and  it  is  of  course  not  to  be  won- 


Mysteries  Unravelled  253 

dered  at  that  your  social  progress  could  not 
keep  abreast  of  the  material  progress.  This 
material  progress  meant  great  riches,  but  it 
did  not  mean  happiness.  The  reverse  was 
true,  for  unequal  distribution  always  produces 
unhappiness,  as  it  starts  the  next  generation 
with  wider  and  wider  distinctions  as  regards 
heredity,  and  especially  as  regards  that  envi- 
ronment which  is  necessary  to  produce  a  good 
citizen." 

"  I  see,  professor  ;  you  state  these  problems 
very  clearly,  I  realize,  as  you  do,  the  great 
effect  our  financial  system  had  upon  the 
younger  generation.  Why,  even  in  my  time 
people  began  to  realize  that  every  day  it  was 
growing  harder  and  harder  to  earn  an  honest 
living." 

"  Yes,  that  fact  was  the  cause  of  the  dis- 
content, the  strikes,  and  all  the  labor  troubles  ; 
it  led  to  the  formation  of  socialistic,  nihilistic, 
and  labor  organizations  all  over  the  world. 
See  how  beautifully  this  whole  scheme  works 
into  the  evolution  of  the  race.  This  divine 
right  of  property  so  called,  whereby  man 
could  own  land  and  capital,  acted  as  a  tremen- 
dous spur  upon  the  race.  It  gave  men  leisure, 
for  they  lived  by  lending ;  it  held  out  the 
hope  of  leisure  to  all  men,  for  all  could  hope 


254  The  Great  Awakening 

to  own.  You  see,  in  this  it  is  a  step  ahead  of 
the  divine  right  of  kings.  This  divine  right 
of  property  was  bound  to  exist  up  to  a  certain 
time,  namely,  to  such  a  time  when  social  con- 
ditions in  every  part  of  the  world  were  approxi- 
mately alike  ;  when  there  were  no  more  unex- 
plored portions  of  the  globe  ;  when  emigration 
to  new  countries  had  decreased  simply  because 
there  were  no  new  countries  where  the  laborer's 
lot  was  any  better  ;  then  the  poor  man  was 
brought  to  bay.  So  long  as  he  could  have  a 
chance  of  owning  land  or  capital  by  going  to 
a  new  country  he  supported  the  system  ;  but 
there  came  a  time  when  there  was  no  place 
to  go  to,  and  then  he  faced  the  music. 

"  The  flying  machine  was  a  tremendous  aid 
to  discovery  and  travel,  so  that  early  in  the 
twentieth  century  the  whole  globe  was  accu- 
rately known.  I  tell  you,  my  friend,  the  man 
who  does  not  see  the  part  that  material  prog- 
ress plays  in  social  progress  does  not  have 
any  conception  of  the  meaning  of  things." 

It  was  now  getting  late,  and  fixing  the  fire 
for  the  night,  we  both  turned  in. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

CONTAINS      A      DISCUSSION      ON       REPUDIATION 
WHICH    MAY    REPAY    THE    READER    OF    IT. 

The  next  morning  I  was  up  bright  and 
early  to  get  the  sunrise,  and  a  beautiful  sight 
it  was.  In  the  valleys  the  heavy  mist  was 
hanging  low;  a  few  clouds  were  hurrying 
westward  with  the  tidings  of  the  coming 
dawn.  Royal  heralds  they  were,  proclaiming 
the  coming  of  the  king. 

Upon  the  horizon  appeared  a  light ;  gradu- 
ally right  and  left  it  spread,  giving  a  pale 
glow  to  all  the  heavens.  A  gentle  breeze 
sprang  up,  rustling  the  trees,  waking  the  birds 
and  bringing  forth  their  joyful  song,  and  then 
a  beam  of  light  suddenly  shot  forth  high  in 
the  heavens,  tinging  all  the  clouds  a  rosy 
color,  which,  falling  on  the  earth  wet  with 
dew,  was  reflected  to  the  eye  by  myriads  of 
diamond  dewdrops  on  every  leaf.  To  the 
right  another  beam  and  still  a  third  appeared ; 
and  then,  with  a  burst  of  splendor,  the  glorious 


256  The  Great  Awakening 

orb  itself  rose  majestically  to  its  throne  in  the 
heavens. 

As  I  walked  back  to  the  camp  I  found  my 
friend  fixing  the  fire  and  preparing  breakfast, 
and  after  we  had  taken  a  refreshing  bath  in 
the  clear,  cold  water  of  a  little  brook  back  of 
the  camp,  we  sat  down  to  table  with  ap- 
petites which  made  us  very  willing  to  overlook 
any  faults  in  the  cooking. 

"What  is  the  program  after  breakfast, 
professor  ?  " 

"  Oh,  I  do  not  know ;  suppose  we  try  to 
see  if  we  can  do  some  soaring.  It  will  be 
great  sport ;  and  if  the  wind  increases  I  think 
we  shall  have  no  trouble,  for,  you  see,  these 
mountains  will  give  us  plenty  of  upward 
currents." 

"  Are  those  necessary,  professor  }  " 

"  Yes.  In  an  absolutely  horizontal  wind  I 
do  not  believe  we  could  do  anything.  What 
you  must  try  to  do  is  to  get  over  an  upward 
current  so  that  it  will  not  only  support  you, 
but  will  pull  you  forward.  Of  course  you 
begin  by  dropping  from  this  cliff,  and  when 
you  have  sufficient  speed,  turn  into  the  wind 
and  rise  as  high  as  you  can,  but  before  you 
lose  your  speed  entirely,  you  must  turn  one 
way  or  another  and  drop  across  the  wind  to 


What  is  Repudiation?  257 

regain  velocity  ;  but  a  trial  will  help  you  more 
than  all  I  can  tell  you." 

Just  as  soon  as  breakfast  was  finished  we 
went  to  our  machines  and  prepared  them  for 
flight,  leaving  every  unnecessary  article  behind 
and  making  everything  trim  and  snug,  in  order 
to  present  as  little  resistance  to  the  wind  as 
possible.  The  professor,  who  started  first, 
took  a  quick  run,  disappeared  over  the  cliff, 
and  a  minute  later  I  saw  him  shooting  across 
the  valley  to  get  in  a  position  to  use  the  up- 
ward current  which  was  rising  over  a  high 
precipice  on  the  other  side,  and  I  watched 
him  for  several  minutes  making  some  very 
interesting  manoemTes,  until  suddenly,  to  my 
great  astonishment,  he  remained  absolutely 
still  in  the  air  at  a  height  of  perhaps  thirty 
feet  above  a  ridge,  and,  save  for  a  slight  rock- 
ing motion,  no  movement  was  perceptible. 
This  excited  my  curiosity  so  much  that  I 
hurried  to  investigate,  and  getting  into  my 
machine,  took  a  short  run  and  launched  myself 
over  the  cliff.  My  motor  was  still  on  the 
drome,  and  as  I  wanted  to  get  to  the  professor 
while  he  was  still  miraculously  suspended  in 
mid-air,  I  set  it  at  work  as  soon  as  I  had  attained 
a  horizontal  course  and  reached  the  ridge 
in  a  very  few  minutes,  to  find  the  professor 


258  The  Great  Awakening 

still  quietly  resting  on  nothing.  As  I  went 
over  the  ridge  the  cause  of  all  this  was  made 
plain  to  me,  for  I  was  suddenly  lifted  vertically 
about  fifty  feet. 

"  Turn  around,  come  down  lower,  and  stop 
your  motor  !  I  think  you  can  manage  it  all 
right." 

Try  as  I  could,  however,  I  was  not  skillful 
enough  to  stay  in  one  place,  and  after  several 
attempts,  in  one  of  which  I  came  very  near 
striking  the  cliff,  I  gave  it  up,  darted  off  down 
the  valley,  then  circled,  and  turning  on  the 
electricity,  mounted  high  in  the  heavens  and 
spent  all  the  morning  in  the  air,  enjoying  every 
moment  and  feeling  glad  that  I  was  alive. 
The  temperature  was  low,  but  I  was  dressed 
for  it,  and  the  beautiful  view,  the  stillness,  the 
delightful  motion,  and  the  gentle  rush  of  the 
wind  past  the  wires  gave  me  a  sense  of  pleas- 
ure and  rest  greater  than  anything  I  had 
before  experienced,  so  that  although  I  had  to 
come  down  to  dinner,  I  was  in  the  air  again 
and  spent  all  the  afternoon  until  sunset  flying 
over  beautiful  valleys,  rugged  mountains,  and 
swollen,  rushing  rivers. 

Indeed,  most  of  our  time  in  camp  was  spent 
above  the  earth  ;  either  we  soared  for  pleasure 
or  we  hunted  for  food,  and  during  our  two 


What  is  Repudiation  ?  259 

weeks  of  camping  we  were  in  the  air  every- 
day. 

After  our  work  was  done,  one  night,  and  we 
were  lounging  around  a  glorious  fire  with  our 
pipes  lighted,  I  began  to  discuss  with  the  pro- 
fessor the  money  question  as  it  had  appeared 
to  me  during  my  former  life  on  earth,  and 
happened  to  bring  up  the  idea  of  repudi- 
ation. 

"Repudiation!"  said  the  professor,  "what 
a  lot  of  talk  there  was  about  it  during  the 
fight  for  silver  just  before  the  close  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  The  word  was  used  by 
the  gold  men  as  an  epithet.  National 
honor  was  at  stake,  the  gold  men  said, 
and  the  wholesale  repudiation  of  debts,  such 
as  they  claimed  free  silver  meant,  would 
bring  the  nation  into  disgrace.  Let  us  see 
just  what  repudiation  means.  Let  us  suppose 
that  I  owe  you  ;^  1,000,  and  that  when  the 
debt  is  due  I  cannot  pay.  You  force  me 
into  bankruptcy,  and  a  settlement  is  made  at 
fifty  cents  on  the  dollar.  That  is  called  a 
failure  and  means  perhaps  the  loss  of  a  liveli- 
hood to  me.  Now  if,  just  before  I  fail  and 
when  I  can  perhaps  pay  more  than  fifty  cents 
on  the  dollar,  I  can  bring  force  to  bear  so 
that  my  creditor  shall    have  to    be  satisfied 


26o  The  Great  Awakening 

with  the  fifty  cents,  I  can  then  keep  on  with 
the  business  and  not  be  forced  to  assign. 
Now  it  is  here  that  the  free  coinage  of  silver 
comes  upon  the  scene.  If  by  any  means  the 
amount  of  money  in  circulation  should  be 
doubled,  the  dollar  will  be  easier  to  get,  and 
therefore,  other  things  being  equal,  will  pur- 
chase less,  so  that  if  I  pay  my  creditor  in  these 
dollars,  legally  the  debt  will  be  paid  ;  but  in  this 
case  the  creditor  will  claim  repudiation,  since 
each  dollar  will  not  purchase  what  it  did 
before  the  increase  came,  and  this  is  true 
whether  the  increase  is  in  gold  or  silver. 
Now  the  creditor  forgets  that  this  dollar  will 
still  pay  his  own  debts,  although  he  cannot 
buy  as  much  with  it ;  that  is,  supposing  he 
owes  ^i,ooo  to  some  one,  he  can  cancel  his 
debt  legally  with  the  same  dollars  he  receives 
from  me,  so  that  on  that  score  he  is  no  loser ; 
but  if  he  is  a  creditor  to  a  great  extent  and 
his  credits  are  large  compared  to  his  debits, 
he  loses  because,  although  he  pays  what  debts 
he  has  with  the  money  he  received  from  me, 
he  finds  the  purchasing  power  of  his  surplus 
funds  cut  down,  and  he  therefore  cries  repu- 
diation. Now  this  class  is  in  numbers  very 
small,  and  the  value  of  their  services  to  the 
community  is  still  smaller.     They  are  not  pro- 


What  is  Repudiation?  261 

ducers,  they  are  not  even  aids  to  the  distribu- 
tion of  wealth ;  they  are  but  extravagant  con- 
sumers, and  their  existence  as  a  class  is  a 
hindrance  to  the  progress  of  mankind." 

"  Are  you  not  rather  hard  upon  them, 
professor  ?  "   I  said. 

"  No.  One  cannot  be  too  hard  upon  a  class 
living  in  idle  luxury  and  exerting  all  its 
energies  in  promoting  a  condition  of  affairs 
in  which  it  prospers  at  the  expense  of  the 
masses." 

"  But,  surely,  all  of  those  who  supported 
the  gold  standard  did  not  belong  to  this 
class." 

"  No.  The  majority  of  .  the  supporters 
were  so  either  because  they  were  ignorant  of 
the  real  meaning  of  the  policy,  or  because,  be- 
ing in  the  employ  of  some  gold  man  or  in 
some  business  which  they  feared  would  not 
live  except  under  a  monometallic  policy,  they 
had  to  regard  their  own  income  first.  Let  me 
explain  my  reasons  for  speaking  as  strongly 
as  I  do.  A  man  is  valuable  to  a  community 
only  from  what  he  does,  what  he  gives  back 
to  the  community.  Now,  if  I  am  a  millionaire 
of  your  time,  I  can  hire  a  man  to  look  after 
my  estate,  and  m  return  for  the  income  on  my 
capital  I  need  not  give  to  the  community  one 


262  The  Great  Awakening 

minute  of  my  time.  In  this  case  I  would  be 
worse  than  useless  to  the  community,  for, 
while  giving  nothing,  I  would  be  receiving 
much." 

"  You  forget,  professor,  you  are  giving 
your  capital  which  benefits  others,  without 
which  industry  could  not  proceed." 

"  You  are  here  admitting  my  point,  which 
is  that  capital,  and  not  the  capitalist,  is  the 
necessary  thing." 

"  But,  professor,  how  can  there  be  capital 
without  the  capitalist .''  " 

"  Now  we  are  in  deep  water,  and  if  we  do 
not  look  out  we  will  have  to  swim.  Suppos- 
ing there  is  a  business  having  $  10,000,000  cap- 
ital—  that  is,  a  business  having  a  plant  and 
other  assets  which  could  not  be  duplicated 
short  of  that  figure  —  and  suppose  that  plant  is 
owned  by  forty  million  stockholders,  each  own- 
ing twenty-five  cents'  worth  of  the  stock  and 
no  more,  would  you  then  call  these  stock- 
holders capitalists  ?  If  there  were  only  these 
forty  millions  of  people  in  the  country,  could 
any  one  of  them  lay  claim  to  the  term  cap- 
italist ? " 

"  Well,  no,  we  would  not  call  a  man  own- 
ing twenty-five  cents'  worth  of  stock  a  cap- 
italist." 


What  is  Repudiation  ?  263 

"  Of  course  not,  but  whom  would  you  call  a 
capitalist  ?  " 

"  Well,  a  capitalist  is  one  who  controls  a 
large  amount  of  capital  ;  he  is  very  much 
wealthier  than  his  neighbors." 

"  Exactly.  There  could  be  no  such  thing 
as  a  capitalist  if  there  were  no  such  thing  as  a 
poor  man,  could  there  .-•  " 

"Well,  no,  I  guess  that  is  right." 

"  Then  the  term  capitalist  is  not  necessarily 
connected  with  the  term  capital,  is  it  .-*  " 

"  That  is  hard  for  me  to  understand  in  spite 
of  your  explanation,  for  it  seems  to  me  that 
the  owner  of  capital  must  always  be  a  capi- 
talist." 

"  But  how  about  the  owner  of  twenty-five 
cents'  worth  of  stock  in  the  midst  of  the 
other  forty  million  owners,  is  he  a  capitalist .-' 
Are  they  all  capitalists  ?  " 

"No,  we  should  not  consider  them  so, 
although  perhaps,  speaking  literally,  they 
were  so." 

"  Perhaps  ;  but  in  your  day  the  term  was 
restricted  to  mean  the  very  few  who  owned 
and  controlled  the  world's  capital,  so  it  is  in 
this  sense  that  I  use  the  term  ;  and  I  wish  to 
impress  upon  you  the  fact  that  the  capital- 
ist, in  this  sense,  was  not   at   all   necessary, 


264  The  Great  Awakening 

although  his  capital  was.  If  all  the  wealth 
in  your  country  had  been  equally  divided,  not 
a  cent's  worth  of  capital  would  have  disap- 
peared, but  would  there  have  been  any  capi- 
talists ?  A  man  may  be  worth  a  dollar  or  a 
million,  but  the  amount  of  capital  he  owns 
does  not  give  him  the  name  of  capitalist, 
since,  if  he  owned  a  million  and  everybody 
else  in  the  country  owned  as  much  he  could 
not  control  any  more  capital  than  his  neigh- 
bor, and  therefore  he  would  not  be  considered 
a  capitalist.  That  name  only  appears  when 
a  difference  of  wealth  appears,  and  lasts 
only  as  long  as  that  difference  lasts.  I  have 
explained  this  at  some  length,  in  order  to 
show  you  that  capital  may  exist  without  cap- 
italists. 

"  Now,  when  I  say  capitalists  are  not  neces- 
sary, I  mean  that  in  the  evolution  of  society 
there  comes  a  time  when  people,  understand- 
ing these  things  more  fully,  see  the  absurdities 
of  the  capitalistic  system,  and  having  clearly 
before  them  a  better  and  juster  system,  bring 
about  the  change ;  but  until  the  mass  of 
people  do  realize  this,  capitalists  are  necessary 
and  will  exist.  The  death  of  the  power  of 
the  priest  in  the  affairs  of  this  world,  the 
overthrow  of  the  one-man  power  in  the  gov- 


What  is  Repudiation  ?  265 

ernment  of  nations,  and  the  downfall  of  the 
domination  of  the  capitalist  are  three  great 
steps  taken  by  mankind  which  mark  dis- 
tinctly three  epochs  in  the  advance  of  human 
knowledge. 

"  In  your  time  the  progress  in  science  and 
art,  the  increase  of  knowledge  in  every  direc- 
tion, even  along  the  line  of  political  economy, 
which  in  the  nineteenth  century  was  the 
most  undeveloped,  yet  the  greatest  of  all 
sciences- — -this  progress  was,  I  say,  gradually 
bringing  the  human  race  to  the  stage  in  evo- 
lution when  the  monstrous  capitalistic  system' 
was  seen  in  its  true  guise;  and  then,  the  lead- 
ers appearing,  the  stand  was  taken,  the  fight 
made  and  won,  and  humanity  passed  on  over 
the  bodies  of  the  dead,  sadder  and  wiser  than 
it  was,  and  ushered  in  a  system  in  which 
equality  of  opportunity  and  the  freedom  of 
the  individual  had  a  greater  and  grander 
meaning  than  ever  before  in  the  history  of 
the  human  race.  The  last  part  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  will  give  you  plenty  of  ex- 
amples of  this  growth.  Take,  for  instance, 
the  growth  of  the  power  of  the  socialists  in 
Germany  and  France,  of  the  populists  in 
America ;  and  consider  the  spread  of  the 
single-tax  idea.     All  these  things  show  what 


266  The  Great  Awakening 

was  going  on;  and  when  the  next  century- 
dawned  and  the  Money  RepubHc  was  born 
the  growth  was  very  fast,  too  fast  indeed, 
since  it  is  evident  from  the  blood  shed  during 
the  change  and  the  Chaotic  Era,  that  there 
were  very  many  not  ready  for,  and  therefore 
opposed  to,  this  progress,  Looking  at  it 
from  the  standpoint  of  to-day,  we  can  under- 
stand easily  why  the  capitalistic  system  ex- 
isted. We  know  that  had  the  wealth  been 
equally  divided  it  would  have  been  again  con- 
centrated, for  with  the  ideas  which  were  com- 
mon at  that  time  this  was  bound  to  happen. 
That  system  fitted  that  age,  and  any  other 
system  could  not  exist.  The  capitalist  had  it 
in  his  power  to  do  the  world  a  great  deal  of 
good  by  hastening  the  advance  along  the  right 
lines  ;  but,  like  every  class  to  which  power  has 
been  delegated,  he  abused  it  and  sought  to 
keep  things  as  they  were,  that  he  might  profit 
thereby. 

"As  Charles  the  Fifth  and  his  son  Philip 
forced  the  inquisition  upon  Spain,  with  the 
view  of  keeping  all  the  sheep  in  the  fold 
where  they  could  be  easily  shorn,  so  the  nine- 
teenth-century capitalist,  as  typified  in  the 
great  bankers,  forced  upon  the  world  the  gold 
standard,  that  all  who  trade  must  first  pay 


What  is  Repudiation  ?  267 

them  tribute.     Verily  was  it  a  '  crucifixion  of 
mankind  upon  a  cross  of  gold.'  " 

It  was  late  that  night  when  we  turned  in, 
and  as  we  were  going  to  start  for  home  early 
the  next  morning,  I  lost  no  time  in  getting  to 
sleep. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

CONTAINS     MUCH     RAPID     TRANSIT     AND     SOME 
ECONOMICS. 

We  landed,  after  a  trip  of  six  hours,  in  the 
heart  of  Salt  Lake  City,  and  from  here  the 
professor  said  he  would  make  the  trip  east 
in  the  cars.  Our  dromes  were  boxed  and 
shipped,  and  we  put  up  at  a  first-class  hotel 
for  the  few  days  we  were  in  the  city. 

I  call  it  city  because  it  is  called  city  on  the 
maps,  but  to  me  there  is  nothing  here  to  sug- 
gest the  city  as  I  knew  it.  In  my  time  that 
term  was  associated  with  narrow,  crooked 
streets  congested  with  traffic  ;  high  buildings, 
crowded  sidewalks,  foul  air,  dark  and  dingy 
offices,  immense  department  stores  crowded 
with  clerks,  their  aisles  packed  with  buyers  ; 
immense  warehouses  stocked  with  the  prod- 
ucts of  home  and  foreign  lands  ;  and  last  of 
all,  when  I  spoke  of  a  city  I  meant  a  gathering 
of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men,  women,  and 
children,  of  all  ages,  of  all  degrees  of  intelli- 
gence, on  a  small  tract  of  ground,  on  which 
368 


Rapid  Transit  269 

they  fought  in  direct  competition  with  each 
other,  and  on  which  they  erected  churches 
where  was  taught  a  doctrine  which,  during  six 
sevenths  of  the  whole  year,  was  totally  disre- 
garded. And  I  had  once  believed  these 
people  civilized  ! 

Salt  Lake  City  is  a  beautiful  place,  but  not 
differing  much  from  many  of  your  modern 
cities  so  I  shall  not  describe  it. 

The  professor  and  I  started  east  on  the 
morning  of  October  10,  and  as  this  was  my 
first  ride  on  a  railroad  it  interested  me  greatly. 
The  engine  was  very  much  smaller  than  the 
engine  of  my  time,  and  consisted  simply  of  an 
electric  generator  of  about  2,000  horse  power, 
mounted  on  a  four-wheeled  truck.  The 
power  was  carried  to  each  car  by  wires  which 
where  coupled  in  much  the  same  manner  as 
the  air-brakes  were,  and  there  was  a  motor  on 
each  truck.  In  this  way  great  speed  and 
great  control  over  the  train  were  obtained,  so 
that  we  ordinarily  travelled  at  the  rate  of 
eighty  miles  an  hour  ;  but  I  must  say,  how- 
ever, that  the  roadbed  is  much  improved  and 
must  be  a  large  factor  in  reaching  this  speed. 

"You  must  see  now,"  said  the  professor, 
"  the  gain  we  have  made  over  your  time. 
Our  progress  in  the  applied  arts  has  been  as 


270  The  Great  Awakening 

great  as  yours  was  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
while  in  the  sciences,  especially  that  of  econ- 
omy, we  have  done  everything  where  you  had 
done  nothing.  The  majority  of  your  works 
upon  economy  were  trash  —  simply  trash,  and 
nothing  more.  Why,  out  of  all  the  books 
written  on  this  subject  I  do  not  believe  you 
will  find  any  two  which  give  the  same  defi- 
nition of  wealth  ;  and  what  must  you  think  then 
of  a  science  in  which  the  chief  factor  is  not 
known  ?  Can  you  call  the  economics  of  your 
time  a  science,  when  one  writer  says  this  is 
wealth,  another  that  is  wealth ;  when  one  says 
an  evidence  of  debt  is  wealth,  while  another 
denies  it ;  when  one  says  money  is  wealth,  and 
another  that  it  only  represents  wealth,  and  so 
on  .-*  Can  you  truthfully  say  that  in  the  year 
nineteen  hundred  there  was  a  science  of  eco- 
nomics ?     No,  you  cannot  ! 

"  At  that  time  economics  was  as  far  from 
being  a  science  as  the  alchemy  of  the  Egyp- 
tians, hundreds  of  years  before  Christ,  was 
from  being  the  science  of  chemistry.  You 
had  no  science  of  economy,  nor  could  have, 
for  you  knew  not  the  first  principles  of  the 
science.  You  did  not  know  what  wealth  was, 
you  did  not  understand  the  method  of  build- 
ing the  science  of  economy  j  you  were  working 


Rapid  Transit  271 

as  the  alchemists  did,  yes,  as  those  ignorant 
people  worked. 

"  They  assumed  gold  to  be  the  only  ele- 
ment, and  considered  what  we  now  know  as 
elements  to  be  compounds,  and  their  endeavor 
to  turn  everything  into  gold  was  the  active 
principle  of  their  work.  Good  has  come  from 
their  labor,  but  no  science  could  ever  result 
from  it  as  long  as  they  held  that  assumption, 
for  it  is  false.  Now  the  economists  of  your 
time  had  an  assumption.  It  was  that  the 
science  of  economics  is  based  upon  moral 
right ;  and,  clinging  to  this  idea,  they  wrote 
volume  after  volume  of  the  silliest  trash,  try- 
ing to  prove  that  this  or  that  was  right  or 
just,  and  attacked  furiously  all  those  who  had 
different  ideas  of  right.  One  might  as  well 
expect  a  science  of  astronomy  made  up  of 
opinions  as  to  what  the  different  laws  should 
be,  based  upon  ideas  of  right,  as  to  expect  a 
science  of  economics  based  upon  Tom,  Dick, 
or  Harry's  idea  of  justice. 

"  My  dear  friend,  do  not  delude  yourself. 
There  was  no  science  of  economics  in  your 
day.  You  had  a  great  quantity  of  men,  on 
one  side,  who  were  paid  to  teach  the  justice  of 
existing  conditions,  while,  on  the  other  side, 
there  were  those  who  taught  the  injustice  of 


272  The  Great  Awakening 

existing  conditions,  and  in  no  way  could  these 
two  sets  meet  to  discuss  without  fighting. 
How  could  you  expect  anything  else  when 
the  question  of  right  came  in  ?  That  is  the 
assumption  that  prevented  you  from  having  a 
science  of  political  economy  ;  the  assumption 
that  moral  right  entered  the  case.  You  can- 
not take  up  any  of  the  old  volumes  which 
treat  of  this  subject  without  finding  this  idea 
of  right  constantly  before  you,  especially  in 
that  part  of  the  work  concerning  the  division 
of  wealth.  The  orthodox  economist  would 
divide  wealth  into  three  parts :  rent,  interest, 
and  wages,  and  consider  that  this  division  was 
just ;  but  the  single  taxer  came  along  and 
said,  *  No,  this  is  unjust.'  He  divided  wealth 
into  two  parts  :  interest  and  wages ;  rent,  or 
economic  rent,  as  it  is  called,  he  gave  to  the 
State.  Still  a  third  man  would  say.  This  is 
wrong.  Wealth  must  go  only  to  those  who 
labor  in  the  present,  and  no  matter  what  the 
laborer  saves,  he  is  entitled  to  no  idleness  ex- 
cept such  as  may  come  by  the  spending  of 
his  capital ;  interest  was  not  just,  they  said. 

"If  you  were  rich  you  were  orthodox,  if  in 
the  middle  class  you  might  be  a  single  taxer, 
while  if  you  were  very  poor  you  were  often 
ready  to  join  the  third  man.     With  this  con- 


Rapid  Transit  273 

dition  of  affairs,  do  you  imagine  you'  could 
have  a  science  of  political  economy?  Cer- 
tainly not !  You  had  none  until  you  excluded 
the  idea  of  justice  and  right." 

"With  what,  then,  does  the  science  deal  ?  " 
I  said. 

"  Simply  with  the  production  of  wealth,  and 
that  alone.  No  idea  of  right  or  justice  can 
enter  for  a  moment  as  the  aim  of  this  science 
any  more  than  it  can  be  considered  in  the 
other  sciences.  Science  can  never  deal  with 
sentiment. 

"  In  your  time  it  was  good  political  economy 
to  allow  the  noblemen  (so  called)  of  Ireland  to 
starve  out  their  tenants,  because  your  political 
economy,  being  based  on  right,  stated  dis- 
tinctly that  the  landowner  by  rights  should 
have  the  first  division  of  wealth,  and  that  it 
was  right  for  him  to  ask  as  much  as  he  could 
for  the  use  of  his  land  ;  yet,  in  spite  of  this 
fact,  your  people  often  looked  in  horror  at 
conditions  this  state  of  affairs  brought  about, 
although  your  economy  taught  the  justice  of 
them,  and  looked  in  horror  because  they 
realized  that  the  condition,  while  being  just  to 
the  landowner — according  to  their  economy  — 
was  unjust  to  the  tenant  —  according  to  their 
feelings  —  and  thus  they  were  at  sea.     Poor 


2  74  The  Great  Awakening 

fools,  they  thought  they  had  a  science  of 
pohtical  economy  ! 

"  Now,  with  us,  conditions  such  as  existed 
in  Ireland  in  the  nineteenth  century  could 
not  exist ;  and  this  is  not  because  we  have 
pity  for  the  tenant,  not  at  all.  We  do  not  go 
on  the  basis  of  justice,  but  our  economy 
teaches  us  that  that  distribution  of  wealth 
which  will  cause  the  most  wealth  to  be  pro- 
duced is  the  proper  one,  and  any  one  can  see 
that  if  a  man  is  turned  out  of  house  and  home 
the  chances  are  against  his  being  a  producer ; 
that  is  enough,  he  stays.  There  is  not  one 
atom  of  sentiment  in  our  economy  ;  the  word 
justice  does  not  enter  any  more  than  it  does 
in  our  astronomy.  As  producers  we  are 
machines,  bodies,  working  in  close  proximity 
to  each  other  and  subject  to  certain  laws ;  and 
our  economy  teaches  us  these  laws  which 
govern  our  actions,  so  that  from  it  we  are 
able  to  judge  of  the  best  methods  of  produc- 
ing wealth.  Thus  eliminating  the  question  of 
right,  we  get  a  science  which  is  understood 
by  all. 

"If  it  could  be  shown  that  to  kill  some 
people  would  tend  to  increase  the  production 
of  wealth,  that  would  be  considered  good 
economy  by  us,  although  in  your  time  it  would 


Rapid  Transit  275 

be  thought  bad  economy.  Mind  you,  econ- 
omy has  nothing  to  do  with  happiness  ;  and 
the  moment  you  let  ideas  of  happiness  enter 
into  this  science  you  ruin  it,  for  every  man 
has  his  own  idea  of  happiness,  and  no  two 
ideas  are  ahke.  Moreover,  one  man  cannot 
prove  he  is  any  happier  than  another  ;  but  a 
man  can  prove  that  one  scheme  of  distribution 
produces  more  wealth  than  another.  That 
can  be  demonstrated  by  fact ;  that  lies  beyond 
personal  feelings  ;  that  can  be  shown  to  be 
based  upon  nature's  laws,  forever  unchange- 
able ;  whereas  ideas  of  right  and  justice  are 
constantly  changing  from  age  to  age.  There- 
fore it  is  that  the  science  of  political  economy 
treats  simply  of  the  production  of  wealth,  with 
a  view  of  showing  the  greatest  possible  pro- 
duction thereof  ;  and  therefore  it  is  that  the 
distribution  of  wealth  is  treated  only  as  a 
factor  in  the  production  of  wealth,  albeit  the 
greatest  one.  The  first  law  of  economy  has 
been  found  inductively,  although  it  has  been 
proved  by  the  deductive  method  also.  It  is, 
as  I  have  told  you  before,  '  Stability  of  govern- 
ment is  necessary  for  the  greatest  production 
of  wealth,'  —  and  by  government  we  mean  the 
ideas  which  govern  a  people,  not  the  men  who 
govern. 


276  The  Great  Awakening 

"  This  law  teaches  us  that  so  long  as  these 
ideas  are  varied  and  unsettled,  so  long  will 
the  production  of  wealth  be  interfered  with, 
which  indeed  was  understood  even  in  your  un- 
civilized times,  for  an  unsettled  condition  of 
ideas  produced  a  lack  of  confidence  in  trade 
and  brought  business  to  a  standstill. 

"  With  regard  to  the  other  three  laws  I 
have  told  you  something  already,  and  will 
perhaps  go  further  in  the  future  ;  but  I  would 
say  here  that  the  first  law  is  the  most  im- 
portant one,  and  is  the  one  which  every  great 
statesman  must  know.  Disregarding  his 
views  as  to  the  other  three  laws,  to  be  great, 
he  must  at  least  understand  the  first  one  ; 
but  the  philosopher,  in  whose  field  political 
economy  lies,  must  know  and  appreciate  all 
four  laws.  It  lies  with  the  philosopher  to  tell 
what  steps  to  take,  and  with  the  statesman 
when  to  take  them.  Neither  can  encroach 
on  the  other's  territory.  The  philosopher 
must  teach  all  four  laws,  the  statesman  must 
enforce  the  first  one  ;  the  one  deals  with  the 
abstract,  the  other  with  the  concrete  ;  the 
one  looks  into  the  future,  the  other  must  see 
but  the  present ;  the  one  need  know  nothing 
of  present  conditions,  the  other  must  know 
everything,      The   philosopher    teaches    the 


Rapid  Transit  277 

people,  and  the  statesman,  when  the  time  is 
ripe,  promotes  them.  The  two  must  work 
together,  and  in  any  country  where  one  is 
missing  the  fact  is  evident." 

"I  presume,  then,"  I  said  to  the  professor, 
"  that  the  America  of  my  time  had  no  phi- 
losophers." 

"  True,  nor  any  statesmen  either.  You 
had  nothing  but  politicians.  '  Vetat  cest 
ntoi '  —  that  is,  the  politician,  and  that  is  all 
you  had  in  your  country.  It  was  always  a  case 
of  legislating  for  one's  own  pocket,  and  no 
greater  proof  that  this  was  the  fact  can  be 
found,  nor  is  there  need  of  a  greater  one,  than 
the  absurd  civil-service  system  existing  in 
your  day.  The  very  fact  that  civil-service 
reform  made  no  progress  was  a  proof  that 
politicians,  not  statesmen,  were  in  power." 

As  a  digression  from  this  topic,  the  profes- 
sor led  me  to  the  end  of  the  train,  to  a  plat- 
form enclosed  in  glass,  from  which  we  could 
view  the  surrounding  country.  We  were  pass- 
ing through  farming  districts,  and  this  brought 
the  professor  to  the  discussion  of  a  point 
which,  in  my  own  time,  had  interested  me 
greatly.  I  had  often  reflected  upon  the  fact 
that,  of  all  industries,  farming  had  changed 
not  at  all   in  its  methods.     That   is  to  say, 


278  The  Great  Awakening 

while  every  other  inckistry  had  gained  by  the 
increased  specialization  of  labor,  farming  alone 
had  remained  unchanged.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  the  introduction  of  a  few  new  and  im- 
proved tools,  the  farm  of  my  day  was  identical 
with  the  farm  of  my  grandfather's  time.  I 
mentioned  this  to  the  professor,  and  he  ex- 
plained it  thus. 

He  said  that  farming  as  a  business  required 
the  use  of  large  and  unoccupied  tracts  of  land 
capable  of  production  ;  this,  of  course,  necessi- 
tated that  farming  districts  must  be  thinly 
populated,  or  to  put  it  another  way,  that  dis- 
tricts thickly  populated  would  be  unsuited  to 
farming.  Since  the  farm  produced  wealth 
which  could  be  consumed  immediately  by  the 
farmer,  active  and  close  trading  was  not  neces- 
sary to  existence.  Also,  with  crude  methods 
of  communication,  improvements  originating 
in  cities  were  slow  in  reaching  the  farms,  so 
the  first  of  these  causes  worked  against  the 
need  of  improvements,  while  the  second  pre- 
vented, to  a  great  extent,  their  introduction, 
and  therefore  progress  was  slow. 

"With  us,"  said  the  professor,  "  increase  of 
knowledge  has  led  to  improved  methods,  while 
increase  in  the  facilities  of  communication  has 
caused  the  increased  adoption  of  these  meth- 


Rapid  Transit  279 

ods.  As  Herbert  Spencer  has  well  said,  prog- 
ress is  but  the  change  from  'an  indefinite 
incoherent  homogeneity  to  a  definite  coherent 
heterogeneity,'  and  the  farmers  were  the  last 
to  feel  this  progress.  But  now  they  have  felt 
it.  The  immediate  cause  of  this  is  the  need 
of  increased  wealth,  but  the  main  cause  of  it 
is  the  force  deep  down  below  all  this,  which  is 
as  unchangeable  as  gravitation  and  which  ex- 
plains all  social  progress,  so  well  defined  by 
Herbert  Spencer.  This  force  has  always 
acted,  will  always  act ;  and  its  tendency  is  to 
so  alter  and  improve  the  social  community 
that  the  greatest  amount  of  wealth  possible 
may  be  produced.  This  is  one  of  the  primary 
forces  which  we  study.  It  is  called  the  law 
of  progress,  and  is  the  basis  of  all  political 
economy,  with  which  happiness  or  justice  have 
no  more  to  do  than  they  have  to  do  with  the 
law  of  gravitation.  It  is  perfectly  conceivable 
that  men  may  be  as  happy  in  a  state  of  civili- 
zation wherein  little  wealth  is  produced  as  in 
one  wherein  great  wealth  is  produced ;  for 
happiness  depends  in  great  measure  on  con- 
tentment, and  contentment  is  dependent 
largely  on  personal  ambition  ;  so  that  so  far 
from  happiness  being  the  groundwork  of  polit- 
ical economy,  in  itself  it  militates  against  the 


28o  The  Great  Awakening 

growth  of  political  economy  and  against  prog- 
ress. Progress  means  change,  and  if  all  were 
happy  there  would  be  no  change.  Witness 
the  Chinese  Empire  from  very  early  times,  in 
which  religion  and  custom,  with  the  help  of 
nature,  fastened  upon  the  people  a  mode  of 
life  and  thought  which  stifled  ambition  and 
gave  birth  to  contentment  and  happiness. 

"  In  this  nation  for  many  centuries  there 
was  no  change  ;  and,  considering  the  natural 
resources  and  population,  but  little  wealth 
was  produced.  Now,  if  to  provide  happiness 
is  the  aim  of  political  economy,  why  did  not 
your  economists  study  China  —  its  system  of 
government,  its  methods  of  trading,  its  policy 
of  exclusion,  its  religion  which  stifled  all  am- 
bition, and  thus  tended  to  produce  happiness  ? 
All  of  these  things  tended  to  promote  happi- 
ness ;  and  so  far  as  we  know,  China  never  suf- 
fered from  such  great  internal  revolutions  as 
convulsed  Europe,  and  therefore  its  people 
must  have  been  happier.  But  your  writers 
considered  China  a  dead  nation,  from  which 
nothing  could  be  learned  in  this  line,  and  so 
they  showed  their  inconsistency.  There  can 
be  no  greater  fallacy  in  the  world  than  to 
connect  happiness  with  the  aim  of  political 
economy." 


Rapid  Transit  281 

"Do  you  mean  to  tell  me,  professor,  that 
although  you  have  solved  the  social  questions 
that  puzzled  us,  you  have  not  reached  a  state 
of  happiness  ?  " 

"  Yes,  nor  can  a  nation  ever  reach  that 
state  unless  all  personal  ambition  dies.  True 
it  is  that  the  evils  which  we  have  are  not  the 
evils  which  existed  in  your  day,  but  with  the 
new  generation  come  new  ambitions,  new 
ideals  ;  and  as  these  must  necessarily,  in  a 
great  many  cases,  be  unsatisfied,  many  are 
unhappy. 

"  This  is  the  reason  why  your  economists 
were  in  the  dark.  They  declared  eternal 
happiness  to  be  the  aim  of  political  economy, 
and  that  any  economy  which  did  not  procure 
this  was  false ;  but  great  philosophers,  recog- 
nizing the  truth  of  the  theory  of  evolution, 
stated  boldly  that  such  a  condition  of  univer- 
sal happiness  could  not  exist,  from  the  very 
nature  of  the  conditions  ;  for  with  the  increase 
of  knowledge  comes  the  increase  of  aspira- 
tion, and  this  growth  will  never  die  until  the 
human  race  becomes  extinct.  Many  men, 
recognizing  the  fact  that  there  would  always 
be  some  to  grumble,  —  grumblers,  by  the  way, 
are  the  salvation  of  the  race,  the  cause  of  all 
progress,  —  have  been  opposed  to  social  change, 


282  The  Great  Awakening 

since  leaders  of  that  change  claimed  happi- 
ness would  follow,  while  their  opponents  knew 
the  contrary.  But  if  economists  had  come 
forward,  attacked  the  problem  from  an  im- 
personal standpoint,  as  every  scientific  prob- 
lem should  be  attacked,  and  said,  '  This  change 
will  increase  the  total  wealth,'  then  the  result 
would  have  been  different.  They,  however, 
contented  themselves  with  crying  out  about 
justice  and  happiness,  so  that  of  all  the  books 
written  on  this  subject  there  was  not  one 
generally  accepted. 

"The  economy  of  your  day  was  in  a  state 
similar  to  astronomy  at  the  time  of  Galileo. 
The  astronomy  then  taught  was  based,  not 
upon  facts  gathered  from  the  heavenly  bodies 
themselves,  but  upon  ideas  which  had  their 
origin  in  the  teachings  of  religious  fanatics. 
A  system  of  astronomy  was  believed,  not 
because  it  conformed  to  facts,  but  because  it 
agreed  with  accepted  religious  ideas.  That 
was  in  Galileo's  time  ;  and  because  he  dared 
to  raise  astronomy  to  the  rank  of  a  science 
by  examining  and  discussing  facts  and  not 
opinions,  he  was  persecuted.  Now  your  eco- 
nomics were  in  a  similar  plight.  Every  writer 
who  discussed  the  distribution  of  wealth  in 
your  day  based  his  conclusions  upon  opinions 


Rapid  Transit  283 

as  to  what  was  a  just  distribution,  and  not 
upon  facts  as  to  which  distribution  would 
cause  the  most  wealth  to  be  produced  ;  and 
when,  finally,  an  able  man  came  forward  and, 
by  eliminating  all  opinions  as  to  justice  or 
happiness,  attacked  the  problem  from  an  im- 
personal standpoint,  he  raised  it  to  a  science 
as  Galileo  had  done  with  astronomy,  and 
his  reward  was  —  persecution.  Are  you  not 
proud  of  your  countrymen  ?  Do  you  at  the 
present  time  fail  to  see  that  they  were  but 
very  little  ahead  of  the  people  they  spoke  of 
as  barbarians  ?  Truly  you  were  an  ignorant 
people,  and  did  not  know  it." 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

IN    WHICH    I    AM    INTRODUCED    TO    MANY    MORE 
MARVELLOUS    INVENTIONS. 

From  the  rear  platform  of  the  car  where 
we  were  I  had  a  chance  to  watch  the  shining 
rails  as  they  fell  away  from  us.  Every  second 
as  I  stood  there  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet 
of  track  flew  by  under  me,  for  we  were  going 
over  eighty  miles  an  hour,  and  this  without 
any  jar  or  vibration.  In  turning  curves  I 
noticed  a  V-shaped  rail  in  the  centre  of  the 
track,  about  a  foot  high,  which  engaged  wheels 
in  the  truck  and  prevented  the  light  train 
from  leaving  the  track  while  turning  curves 
at  high  speeds.  This  train  was  very  much 
lighter  than  the  trains  of  my  day,  and  the 
professor  said  it  was  made  so  that  it  might  be 
started  or  stopped  quickly,  which  of  course 
played  an  important  part  in  rapid  suburban 
traffic. 

From  the  rear  we  went  forward  and,  with 
the  guard's  permission,  went  into  the  engine 
room.  The  engine  was  much  like  a  very 
284 


More  Marvellous  Inventions     285 

small  caboose,  and  could  be  entered  from  the 
platform  of  the  first  car ;  it  had  windows  on 
all  sides,  and  the  front  was  built  out  into  a 
nose,  lessening  the  resistance  of  the  air,  which 
at  the  speed  we  were  going  was  nearly 
twenty-five  pounds  per  square  foot.  Taking 
into  account  the  size  of  the  train,  this  resist- 
ance would  have  been  more  than  a  ton  if  not 
reduced  by  the  shape  of  the  nose  and  train, 
which  was  of  course  vestibuled.  In  the 
engine  room  stands  the  httle  upright  genera- 
tor, which  bums  naphtha,  '  vaporized  in  a 
heater,  and  twenty-five  hundred  horse  power 
is  distributed  to  fourteen  motors  under  the 
different  cars.  The  firing  of  the  boiler  is 
automatic  and  there  is  no  fireman,  one  man 
having  entire  control.  He  sits  forward,  hav- 
ing a  full  and  unobstructed  view  of  the  track, 
and  upon  either  hand  are  switches,  levers,  and 
buttons,  with  which  the  engineer  controls  the 
train.  Besides  the  connections  between  the 
cars  for  the  air-brakes  and  the  electric  cur- 
rent, there  is  a  telephone  which  connects 
with  every  car,  and  various  dials  by  which  the 
engineer  knows  the  power  consumed  by  every 
motor,  the  pressure  of  air  in  every  brake,  the 
temperature  of  every  bearing.  But  the  en- 
gineer knows  more. 


286  The  Great  Awakening 

By  the  aid  of  a  small  camera  and  electrical 
connections  he  can  look  at  every  truck  under 
the  train  to  see  that  everything  is  in  a  sound 
condition.  He  can  do  this  at  night  even, 
since  he  has  only  to  press  a  button  and  every 
truck  is  lighted  by  lamps  under  the  floor  of 
the  car.  This  machine  is  wonderful  in  itself 
and  very  interesting  to  me,  for  in  my  time 
the  instantaneous  transmission  of  pictures 
over  a  wire  was  being  experimented  with  as 
one  of  the  possibilities.  Here  I  saw  it  per- 
fected. I  put  my  eye  to  a  small  hole  in  a 
box,  the  engineer  turned  a  switch,  and  presto  ! 
I  was  under  the  train,  and  there  was  the 
truck  with  its  buzzing  motor,  its  whirling 
wheels,  and  its  swinging  brake  beams.  It  is 
wonderful,  and  the  engineer  told  me  that  this 
little  machine  had  saved  many  a  bad  accident, 
which  I  do  not  doubt  in  the  least. 

I  had,  during  my  trip,  noticed  an  absence 
of  those  tall  poles  that  one  saw  at  the  side  of 
every  railway  in  my  day  ;  I  refer  to  the  block 
signals,  not  to  the  telegraph  poles,  but  by 
this  road  there  were  no  poles  whatever. 
Telegraphing  without  wires  was  possible,  I 
knew  ;  but  I  did  not  see  how  it  was  possible 
to  do  this  from  a  moving  train,  so  that  only 
a  train  on  the  same  track  would  receive  the 


More  Marvellous  Inventions     287 

message.  The  engineer,  however,  soon  ex- 
plained it.  It  seems  that  two  brushes  touched 
the  rails,  one  on  either  side  of  the  cab,  and 
that  these  brushes  were  so  connected  that, 
whenever  it  was  possible,  a  current  of  elec- 
tricity from  one  brush  would  run  along  the 
rail,  cross  to  the  other,  and  come  back  to  the 
cab.  Whenever  the  circuit  was  thus  closed, 
a  signal  was  made  in  the  cab  by  a  bell.  The 
rails,  however,  were  insulated  from  each  other, 
and  there  was  no  way  for  the  current  to  pass 
from  rail  to  rail  unless  there  was  another 
train  on  the  track. 

This  is  certainly  an  infallible  block  system, 
and  by  increasing  the  strength  of  the  current 
the  length  of  the  block  of  safety  may  be  in- 
creased. In  this  system  it  is  impossible  for  one 
train  to  approach  another  on  the  same  track 
to  within  one  mile  without  each  engineer  being 
aware  of  the  fact.  This  certainly  is  ingenious 
and  simple,  and  I  wondered  why  the  inventors 
of  my  time  had  not  thought  of  it. 

As  we  were  standing  in  the  cab  and  I  was 
looking  at  the  simple  little  boiler,  a  bell  rang 
out  loudly.  It  sounded  like  a  telephone  bell, 
and  the  engineer  immediately  threw  open  a 
switch,  when  the  handle  in  the  small  dials 
moved,  showing  that  the  power  had  been  shut 


2  88  The  Great  Awakening- 

off ;  then  the  whistle  was  sounded.  The 
train  was  gradually  going  slower  and  slower, 
until  the  speed  dial  marked  fifteen  miles  to  the 
hour,  when,  on  rounding  a  curve,  we  came 
upon  a  freight  train  standing  an  eighth  of  a 
mile  ahead  of  us.  Our  train  was  stopped  in 
its  own  length,  and  the  professor  and  I  jumped 
down  and  went  forward  with  the  conductor 
and  a  few  passengers  who  had  by  this  time 
come  up,  to  find  out  the  trouble. 

The  freight,  it  seems,  had  broken  in  two  on 
the  top  of  a  grade,  and  as  the  train  came 
down,  the  rear  had  smashed  into  the  front 
portion,  damaging  the  trucks  so  much  that  it 
required  two  hours  to  get  them  in  condition 
again.  This  accident  attracted  a  large  crowd, 
and  I  saw  many  men  circling  round  in  flying 
machines,  looking  interested. 

This  was  the  one  thing  I  could  hardly  get 
over.  To  see  the  air  filled  with  men  was 
always  a  strange  sight,  and  I  was  more  inter- 
ested in  watching  them  than  in  the  repairing  of 
the  truck.  After  we  had  been  kept  waiting 
forty  minutes — the  freight  had  been  stalled 
an  hour  before  we  came  up  —  the  two  trains 
started,  and  ours  followed  the  freight  a  mile  and 
a  half,  when  it  turned  into  a  siding  and  let  us 
pass.     We  were  now  over  forty  minutes  late, 


More  Marvellous  Inventions     289 

and  we  simply  flew  over  the  rails  to  make  up 
time.  I  remember  that  on  one  straight 
stretch  of  abovit  five  miles  the  speed  dial 
registered  one  hundred  and  sixty-five  miles  an 
hour.  It  made  me  rather  nervous  to  stand  in 
the  cab  and  look  ahead  at  the  rails,  which  the 
engine  seemed  to  swallow  at  the  rate  of  two 
hundred  and  forty  feet  a  second,  so  we  re- 
turned to  our  seats  in  the  coach. 

We  arrived  at  Denver  ten  minutes  behind 
time  and  only  waited  there  for  an  hour  and  a 
half,  which  time  we  employed  in  taking  dinner 
at  one  of  the  hotels.  Denver  is  a  beautiful 
city,  but  to  me  it  is  like  all  your  cities ;  I 
suppose  because  in  my  time  difference  in 
wealth  showed  itself  everywhere,  while  with 
you  there  are  none  of  these  differences.  The 
buildings  seem  to  me  to  be  small  ;  but  all 
your  buildings  are.  I  do  not  remember  seeing 
one  over  three  stories  high  except  the  towers  for 
flying  machines,  while  in  my  time  eleven  and 
twelve  storied  buildings  were  ordinary  affairs, 
and  New  York  boasted  of  its  twenty-seven 
story  structure.  I  remember  it  well,  for  I 
had  been  to  its  top  many  times  and  enjoyed 
the  view  over  the  bay.  And  to  think  that 
that  mammoth  building  was  destroyed  by 
a    mob  !      What   terrible   scenes    must    have 


290  The  Great  Awakening 

been  enacted  in  that  city  during  the  Chaotic 
Era! 

At  eight  o'clock  we  left  Denver  in  a  sleep- 
ing car  for  Kansas  City,  a  distance  on  this 
line  of  seven  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  which 
we  were  to  cover  before  breakfast  the  next 
morning.  The  sleeper  was  built  much  like 
those  of  my  time,  though  it  was  not  so  heavy, 
and  each  compartment  was  separated  from 
the  rest  by  a  wooden  partition  which  was 
movable.  Each  berth,  or  bed,  had  an  electric 
light  for  reading,  and  as  there  were  no  upper 
berths,  plenty  of  head  room  was  secured. 
The  ventilation  was  artificial  and  perfect ;  no 
windows  were  opened,  the  air  —  coming  in 
from  the  top  of  the  car,  heated  or  cooled  by  an 
electrical  apparatus  as  the  season  required  — 
was  distributed  to  the  berths  by  fans.  At 
the  side  of  each  bed  was  a  small  tube  shaped 
like  a  megaphone,  and  all  these  tubes  were 
connected  with  a  phonograph  at  the  end  of 
the  car,  so  that  one  could  listen  while  a  pho- 
nograph breathed  soft,  enchanting  music,  or 
one  could  arrange  to  be  awakened  by  music 
at  any  hour  he  might  wish.  I  went  to  sleep 
that  night,  listening  to  a  Beethoven  sym- 
phony ;  and  if  I  remember  correctly,  I  was 
awakened  by  Flotow's  "  Stradella  "  overture. 


More  Marvellous  Inventions      291 

Its  lively  movement  caused  me  to  open  my 
eyes,  and  it  took  some  time  to  collect  my 
thoughts  and  to  realize  that  I  was  not  in 
my  native  Boston,  listening  to  the  Symphony 
Orchestra,  so  beautiful  was  the  performance. 
When  I  looked  out  I  was  astonished  to  find 
that  we  were  in  the  station  at  Kansas  City. 
I  dressed  hurriedly  and  went  out  on  the  plat- 
form, where  I  found  the  professor,  who  had 
been  up  some  time,  and  we  went  to  the  res- 
taurant for  breakfast.  We  staid  here  but  a 
short  time,  and  then  hurried  on  to  St.  Louis, 
which  we  reached  at  half  past  ten  in  the 
morning.  Here  we  remained  two  days,  that 
I  might  see  one  or  two  of  the  art  galleries 
and  some  fine  public  buildings,  and  soon  we 
were  on  our  way  to  Chicago.  This  was  to  be 
our  last  stop  in  the  West,  and  we  were  then  to 
make  the  rest  of  the  trip  to  New  York  in 
our  aerodromes,  which  had  been  sent  ahead 
of  us. 

We  arrived  in  the  city  at  eight  o'clock  in 
the  evening  and  took  an  electric  cab  to  the 
Hotel  St.  James,  which  is  but  three  stories 
high,  but  occupies  over  an  acre  of  ground. 
Here  we  were  given  rooms  on  the  second 
floor,  and  in  spite  of  the  comforts  of  travel- 
ling in  modern  trains,  I  was  so  tired  that  I 


292  The  Great  Awakening 

was  glad  to  go  to  bed  early.  The  same  pho- 
nographic arrangement  was  used  in  the  hotel 
as  on  the  train,  and  after  turning  the  switch  I 
got  into  bed  and  almost  immediately  went  to 
sleep.  Now,  unless  set  to  stop  at  a  certain 
time,  the  phonograph  will  go  on  forever ;  and 
as  I  was  too  sleepy  to  stop  it,  it  played  its 
whole  repertory  and  then  began  over  again, 
until  an  exceptionally  loud  passage  from  one 
of  Berlioz's  symphonies,  which  I  think  is 
scored  for  a  battery  of  cannon  as  well  as  for 
a  full  orchestra,  woke  me  with  a  start,  and  I 
jumped  for  the  switch.  But  I  suppose  I  was 
charged  in  my  bill  for  the  five  hours  of  music 
which  I  did  not  hear. 

The  next  morning  we  took  breakfast  in  the 
large  dining  room,  which  is  finished  in  white 
with  fine  tracings  of  gold  in  scroll  work  and 
flowers  on  the  ceiling  and  walls.  Most  of 
the  tables  are  set  endwise  against  the  walls, 
which  are  covered  with  mirrors  beautifully 
framed.  The  ceiling  is  supported  by  eight 
massive  pillars  decorated  in  the  same  manner 
as  the  walls,  and  the  whole  is  flooded  with 
light  at  night  by  an  electric  current  which 
plays  in  tubes  of  tinted  glass.  These  tubes 
hang  from  the  ceiling  and  take  the  form  of  a 
creeping  vine,  and  here  and  there  are  clus- 


More  Marvellous  Inventions      293 

ters  representing  buds  and  flowers ;  the  pil- 
lars are  surrounded  by  vines,  which  start  from 
their  bases  and  grow  upwards,  radiating  in  all 
directions  to  meet  the  tubes  on  the  ceiling. 
By  varying  the  intensity  of  the  current,  the 
color  of  the  lights  is  changed,  and  the  differ- 
ent tints  of  the  tubes  increase  the  effect, 
making  them  appear  like  a  living  vine  bud- 
ding overhead  and  on  every  side  with  beau- 
tiful flowers. 

As  we  entered,  a  waiter  conducted  us  to  an 
unoccupied  table  near  a  pillar,  and  stood  with 
a  tablet  awaiting  our  order.  This  he  wrote 
on  a  slip  of  paper,  and  opening  a  little  door  in 
the  pillar,  he  placed  the  paper  inside  on  a  slab. 
The  professor  explained  to  me  that  that  was 
an  electric  camera,  and  that  as  soon  as  the 
paper  was  placed  on  the  slab  a  bell  rang  be- 
low, and  a  servant,  looking  into  the  machine, 
read  our  order.  This  camera  was  the  same 
sort  of  a  machine  that  was  used  on  the 
train  to  enable  the  engineer  to  see  the  trucks 
when  the  cars  were  moving.  The  orders  were 
quickly  filled  and  sent  from  the  kitchen  up  to 
the  dining  room  on  a  dumb  waiter  within  the 
massive  pillar,  so  that  the  service  was  quicker 
than  any  I  had  been  used  to  in  the  great 
hotels  of  my  day. 


294  The  Great  Awakening 

During  our  meal  the  professor  called  my 
attention  to  a  gentleman  at  another  table, 
saying:  "That  is  Professor  Sedgwick,  the  great 
biologist.  The  result  of  his  study  possibly 
has  done  more  for  the  good  of  humanity  than 
any  other  one  thing ;  for  it  is  he  who  first 
perfected  the  cure  of  consumption.  In  ex- 
perimenting with  etheric  waves  and  their  ef- 
fect on  microbes,  he  discovered  a  wave  which 
is  fatal  to  the  tuberculosis  germ,  and  after  a 
long  course  of  study  and  experiment,  covering 
twenty  years  of  hard  work,  he  has  perfected 
the  process  so  that  it  is  now  used  universally 
as  a  cure  for  that  disease. 

"The  patient  is  subjected  to  the  rays  from 
his  instrument  for  short  periods  of  time  until 
all  the  germs,  in  whatever  part  of  the  body, 
are  killed  ;  but  these  rays,  being  detrimental 
to  the  cellular  tissues,  have  to  be  handled  with 
great  care,  and  the  patient  often  has  to  undergo 
another  treatment  to  overcome  those  bad  ef- 
fects. The  operation  is  successful,  however, 
and  the  patient  is  always  safe  until  the  germ, 
which  is  present  in  food  and  even  in  the  air, 
affects  another  lodgment,  when  the  operation 
must  be  repeated. 

"  We  know  now  that  this  disease  is  not  trans- 
mitted by  heredity  proper,  although  the  germ 


More  Marvellous  Inventions     295 

may  find  lodgment  in  the  young  during  preg- 
nancy ;  but  we  find  that  the  proper  use  of  this 
cure  has  decreased  the  number  of  cases  so 
much,  and  the  race  is  so  free  from  the  disease, 
that  even  those  tendencies  to  consumption, 
such  as  narrow  chests  and  poor  blood,  which 
existed  to  such  a  large  extent  in  your  day,  are 
no  longer  present,  and  the  disease  has,  in  fact, 
lost  all  its  terrors." 

I  could  only  express  my  admiration  for  this 
great  discovery  and  say,  "  Your  generation 
has  everything  to  make  it  happy,  professor." 

"  I  do  not  know  about  that.  The  modern 
generation,  never  having  seen  the  disease,  can- 
not, of  course,  realize  what  it  has  gained  by 
the  cure,  and  so  it  naturally  does  not  feel  the 
gratitude  which  that  generation  in  whose  life 
the  cure  was  effected  felt.  The  modern  gen- 
eration accepts  its  own  conditions  as  a  matter 
of  course,  and  has  still  higher  ideals  which,  in 
the  majority  of  cases  being  unsatisfied,  lead 
to  unhappiness.  It  must  be  ever  thus  unless 
we  find  that  there  is  a  limit  to  ambition,  which, 
by  the  way,  is  considered  by  our  greatest  phi- 
losophers as  inconceivable,  so  that  a  state  of 
eternal  happiness  can  never  exist." 

"  Which  reminds  me,  professor,  of  a  point 
in  economy  about  which  I  wanted  to  ask  you. 


296  The  Great  Awakening 

If  happiness  is  not  the  aim  of  poHtical  econ- 
omy, what  part,  if  any,  does  it  play  in  that 
science? " 

"  It  is  one  of  the  factors  which  affect  the 
first  law.  The  stability  of  any  form  of  gov- 
ernment, or  the  stability  of  any  idea,  depends 
in  a  very  large  measure  upon  the  happiness  of 
the  people  living  under  that  government  or 
holding  to  that  idea.  If  a  large  portion  of 
the  population  of  any  country  are  not  happy 
under  a  system  the  stability  of  that  system 
will  be  threatened,  and  therefore  it  must  be 
changed,  or  the  people  must  be  kept  in  sub- 
jection by  force.  This  was  recognized  in 
your  day,  and  there  were  examples  of  both 
methods  of  regaining  stability,  as  in  England 
and  Russia, 

"  Now  when,  as  in  England,  laws  were 
changed  to  suit  the  majority,  it  was  done  not 
to  bring  happiness,  but  to  bring  about  that 
stable  condition  of  affairs  in  which  alone  great 
wealth  could  be  produced  ;  on  the  other  hand, 
in  Russia  force  was  used  to  prevent  the 
spread  of  ideas  which,  causing  unhappiness  or 
discontent  with  existing  conditions,  would 
have  led  to  instability  and  thus  diminished  the 
production  of  wealth.  The  difference  between 
these  two  methods  was  that  while  in  England 


More  Marvellous  Inventions     297 

change  followed  change,  and  stability  was  ob- 
tained, there  was  also  a  great  progress  towards 
the  fulfillment  of  the  other  three  laws  govern- 
ing the  production  of  wealth,  and  therefore 
great  wealth  was  produced.  On  the  other 
hand,  in  Russia  the  method  of  force,  while  it 
produced  stability,  prevented  progress  in  any 
other  direction,  since  force  could  not  be  used 
unless  there  were  governmental  interference, 
large  monopolies,  and  great  inequality  in  the 
distribution  of  wealth  ;  therefore  the  first  law 
was  satisfied  at  the  expense  of  the  other  three, 
so  that  Russia  was  poor  in  everything  except 
natural  resources.  The  extreme  folly  of  this 
course  was  made  plainly  evident  when  the 
great  struggle  between  England  and  Russia 
took  place  in  Asia.  The  Russian,  because  of 
this  condition,  was  four  centuries  behind  the 
times,  and  the  downfall  of  the  Russian  Empire 
came  soon  after  this  struggle.  You  see  that 
it  is  the  nation  which  produces  the  most 
wealth  from  the  labor  of  its  own  people  that 
must  win  in  the  long  run,  and  that  nation  was 
England ;  this  is  so  because  the  people  of 
such  a  nation  are  always  more  intelligent, 
more  energetic,  and  understand  the  laws  of 
nature  better  than  any  other  peoples. 

"  For  an  example.      Let  us   suppose  you 


298  The  Great  Awakening 

and  I  are  cast  away  on  two  islands  —  one  very 
productive,  upon  which  I  am  placed,  and  one 
barren,  which  you  occupy.  Now  all  I  have  to 
do  to  get  a  living  is  to  pluck  the  fruit  near  at 
hand,  or  shoot  the  game,  or  catch  the  fish 
with  which  the  rivers  teem,  while  you  are  put 
to  your  wit's  end  to  live.  In  considering  the 
islands,  mine  produces  more  than  yours,  but 
it  is  absurd  to  say  that  I  produce  more  than 
you  do.  Everything  is  produced  for  me  ;  you 
have  to  produce  everything,  and  the  effect  on 
us  is  to  make  me  indolent  and  luxurious,  to 
make  you  intelligent  and  energetic,  so  that  in 
course  of  time  you  will  come  over  and  drive 
me  off  my  island.  It  is  thus  with  nations. 
Up  to  a  certain  limit,  the  harder  the  struggle 
the  sharper  grows  the  intellect  ;  but  beyond 
that  limit,  if  nature  is  too  strong,  man  must 
succumb.  This  is  why  the  peoples  of  the 
temperate  zone  have  attained  the  highest 
state  of  civilization,  for  the  struggle  against 
nature  has  urged  them  forward,  while  nature 
was  not  powerful  enough  to  inspire  them  with 
awe  and  thus  check  their  progress.  Of  all 
the  feelings  which  man  has  ever  cherished, 
those  of  reverence  and  awe  have  stopped  his 
progress  more  than  any  others. 

"  Your  writers,  in  speaking  of  wealth,  would 


More  Marvellous  Inventions     299 

often  confound  wealth  of  natural  resources  with 
wealth  of  productive  labor,  when  there  can  be 
nothing  more  absurd  than  to  do  this  in  speak- 
ing of  national  wealth.  The  natural  wealth 
of  a  country  —  that  is,  its  natural  resources  — 
is  no  criterion  of  that  country's  condition ;  for 
those  resources  are  entirely  independent  of 
race,  creed,  or  form  of  government,  which 
latter  can  only  be  determined  by  the  produc- 
tive wealth  of  the  nation,  for  this  depends 
upon  the  degree  with  which  the  system  con- 
forms to  the  four  laws  governing  the  pro- 
duction of  wealth.  Thus  the  Spain  of  your 
day,  although  full  of  natural  resources,  was, 
economically  speaking,  poor  for  the  same 
reason  that  Russia  was,  although  in  Spain  a 
priesthood  and  not  military  force  was  the 
cause." 

The  professor  stopped  speaking  at  this 
point,  and  having  finished  our  breakfast,  we 
left  the  hotel  to  see  the  city. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THE  LAST  STAND  OF  THE  EIGHTEENTH  REGU- 
LAR INFANTRY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  EMPIRE. 

"Professor,"  I  said,  as  we  strolled  down 
the  avenue,  "  it  seems  to  me,  as  I  begin  to 
understand  your  system  of  economy,  that  in 
order  that  the  first  law  may  be  obeyed  there 
must  exist  often  conditions  which  are  contrary 
to  the  other  laws,  and  that,  as  civilization  pro- 
gresses and  men  gain  in  knowledge,  that  gain 
will  be  shown  by  such  a  change  in  social  con- 
ditions that  the  system,  while  still  satisfying 
the  first  law,  will  satisfy  also  the  other  three 
laws." 

"  Very  true,  and  any  change,  to  be  beneficial, 
must  come  from  an  increase  of  knowledge 
among  the  masses,  since  without  this  any 
change  is  apt  to  violate  the  first  law.  Thus 
if  a  people  believe  thoroughly  in  a  protective 
tariff  it  would  be  folly  to  force  them  into  free 
trade,  as  it  would  tend  to  make  business 
unstable,  since  a  large  body  of  men  would 
always  be  clamoring  for  protection ;  and  this 


The  Fall  of  an  Empire  301 

is  so  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  free  trade  as  a 
pohcy  will  cause  a  great  increase  of  wealth. 
And,  therefore,  while  the  philosopher  says 
truthfully  that  protection  prevents  the  in- 
crease of  wealth  while  free  trade  tends  to  the 
reverse,  the  statesman  says  as  truthfully.  So 
long  as  people  hold  that  protection  is  better 
than  free  trade,  it  is  better  not  to  give  them 
free  trade,  for  the  first  law  of  economy  is  more 
important  than  the  second. 

"The  philosopher  must  not  consider  peo- 
ple's opinions,  but  that  is  just  what  the  states- 
man must  do ;  and  the  only  way  to  bring 
about  free  trade  is  to  show  the  people  that  it 
would  be  better  for  them  than  protection, 
which  was  done  early  in  the  twentieth 
century." 

We  took  a  cab  from  the  St.  James  and 
started  north  up  the  Lake-Side  Drive.  I  had 
known  the  Chicago  of  my  day  pretty  well,  but 
your  Chicago  is  an  entirely  new  city.  I  rec- 
ognized nothing,  and  few  of  the  old  buildings 
are  in  existence. 

As  I  looked  upon  this  city  and  compared 
it  to  the  one  I  had  known,  I  began  to  realize 
the  magnitude  of  the  change  the  Chaotic  Era 
had  brought  about  ;  and  I  was  both  amazed 
and  puzzled,  for  I  could  not  understand  how  it 


302  The  Great  Awakening 

was  possible  in  a  democracy  that  such  injustice 
should  be  dealt  out  as  to  cause  an  uprising  of 
the  masses ;  for  my  contemporaries  had  always 
claimed  that  the  right  of  suffrage  was  a  safety 
valve,  and  so  long  as  that  was  given  to 
every  man,  battles  would  be  fought  with  votes 
and  not  with  muskets.  The  professor  sur- 
prised me  again  by  reading  my  thoughts  ;  he 
certainly  is  very  expert  at  this  art.  "  The 
right  of  suffrage  is  a  safety  valve, ' '  said  he,  con- 
tinuing in  speech  the  line  of  thought  I  had 
been  following  for  some  minutes,  "  but  it  did 
not  exist  at  the  time  of  the  Chaotic  Era.  It 
had  been  withdrawn  some  fifty  or  seventy- 
five  years  previous  to  that  date,  and  that  is 
the  reason  why  the  battle  was  fought  with 
bullets  and  not  with  ballots." 

I  turned  to  him  in  astonishment  and  could 
not  conceal  my  amazement  at  this  fact,  which 
was  news  to  me. 

"Do  you  mean  to  tell  me,  professor,  that 
the  right  of  suffrage  was  limited  ?  That  the 
great  republic  of  Washington  and  Jefferson 
reached  a  stage  where  it  threw  over  its  prin- 
ciples of  democracy  to  aid  and  protect  the 
upper  classes  ? " 

"  That  is  just  what  it  did." 

**  Alas  !    I  weep  for  my  country.     That  is 


The  Fall  of  an  Empire  303 

the  saddest  of  all  news.     How  did  it  happen  ? 
What  was  the  cause  of  it  ?  " 

"  It  was  the  result  of  the  policy  of  imperial- 
ism which  followed  the  Spanish-American 
war  of  1898.  At  the  end  of  this  war  the 
United  States  found  herself  with  Cuba,  Porto 
Rico,  and  the  Philippines  on  her  hands. 
These  islands  contained  many  millions  of  un- 
civilized people,  and  it  was  utterly  impossible 
to  give  them  the  right  of  suffrage  and  have  a 
stable  government.  I  may  say  here  that 
economic  science,  in  dealing  with  forms  of 
government  as  a  corollary  of  the  first  law, 
shows  us  that  democracy  is  not  always  the 
best  form  of  government  from  the  economic 
standpoint.  It  shows  us  that  democracy  is 
best  suited  to  that  nation  which  is  most  civi- 
lized and  which  is  the  most  '  definite  hetero- 
geneity '  of  all  nations  ;  whereas,  for  an  un- 
civilized nation,  nothing  is  more  conducive  to 
the  greatest  production  of  wealth,  than  to  be 
governed  by  a  representative  of  a  highly  civi- 
lized nation,  provided,  of  course,  that  this 
representative  is  not  corrupt.  In  this  condi- 
tion the  uncivilized  peoples  may  not  be  as 
happy  as  they  were,  but  there  will  be  a 
tremendous  gain  in  the  production  of  wealth, 
so  that  in  dealing  with  two  different  peoples, 


304  The  Great  Awakening 

it  is  often  necessary  that,  to  get  the  same  re- 
sult, /.  c,  stability,  two  diametrically  opposite 
methods  of  government  must  be  used. 

"  Now  from  limiting  the  suffrage  in  Cuba 
to  limiting  it  in  the  United  States  was  but 
a  step,  and  soon  after  imperialism  had  become 
the  policy  of  your  country,  a  property  and 
educational  qualification  was  put  upon  the 
right  of  suffrage.  The  immediate  results  of 
this  were  beneficial,  and  most  men  of  your 
time  could  see  only  immediate  results,  for  a 
large  majority  of  the  Americans  of  your  day 
did  not  know  enough  about  the  principles  of 
government  to  use  their  votes  intelligently ; 
but  the  later  results  were  disastrous,  for  dis- 
content, not  being  allowed  to  show  itself  at 
the  voting  booths,  grew  silently,  and  finally 
attained  such  proportions  that  it  was  satisfied 
only  with  blood,  and  thus  was  the  Chaotic 
Era  brought  about." 

Going  up  the  avenue,  the  professor  pointed 
out  several  spots  as  the  scenes  of  bloodshed 
during  the  early  part  of  the  revolution,  and 
he  described  to  me  the  last  stand  made  by 
the  regulars  against  the  mob.  Undoubtedly 
you  are  all  more  familiar  with  the  history  of 
these  times  than  I  am,  so  I  will  not  weary  you 
with  a  description  of   them,  except   perhaps 


The  Fall  of  an  Empire  305 

this  last  fight,  which  I  will  tell  in  the  profes- 
sor's own  words. 

"  You  must  know  that  the  uprising,  coming 
so  quickly  and  unexpectedly  after  Blackburn's 
speech  in  the  Senate,  took  the  government 
by  surprise,  and  it  soon  became  evident  that 
the  means  were  not  sufficient  to  handle  the 
case.  A  large  force  of  regulars  was  called 
to  Chicago  from  the  West  and  was  reinforced 
by  that  part  of  the  state  militia  which  was 
still  loyal  to  the  government,  and  a  large  force 
of  flying  police  was  added  also.  However, 
before  this  mixed  body  could  be  concentrated 
in  order  to  do  effective  work,  the  mob  had 
grown  to  tremendous  proportions.  It  gath- 
ered force  from  all  ranks  in  life  and  was 
officered  by  many  able  men,  so  it  happened 
that  the  few  thousand  regulars  accomphshed 
nothing,  but  were  shot  down  without  mercy 
at  every  street  corner.  The  flying  police 
were  effective  until  the  mob,  obtaining  flying 
machines  for  themselves,  met  their  enemies 
in  the  air,  where  numbers  and  the  passion  of 
uneducated  men  fighting  for  a  great  principle 
won  over  trained  but  disheartened  soldiers. 
Indeed,  over  a  third  of  the  regulars  joined  the 
mob  when  they  became  aware  of  the  extent 
and  fury  of  the  movement,  wishing  to  be  on 


3o6  The  Great  Awakening 

the  right  side  of  the  fence,  as  it  were.  At 
last,  after  two  weeks  of  fire,  pillage,  and  hard 
fighting,  three  companies  of  regulars  com- 
posed of  about  one  hundred  trained  soldiers 
remained  entrenched  at  this  spot,  awaiting  the 
pleasure  of  the  mob." 

We  had  stopped  the  carriage,  and  the  pro- 
fessor was  pointing  to  a  place  in  the  street 
marked  with  a  cross  of  stone. 

"  Here  these  men  awaited  death  behind 
such  protection  as  the  walls  of  buildings  which 
had  fallen  from  either  side  afforded,  and  upon 
a  morning  in  June  they  gave  up  their  lives  in 
the  endeavor  to  check  the  fury  of  a  mob  one 
hundred  times  more  powerful  than  that  which 
set  up  the  guillotine  in  Paris  years  before.  It 
was  a  tragedy  similar  to  the  annihilation  of  the 
Swiss  Guards  in  France,  in  1792. 

"  The  barricades  extended  from  one  side  of 
the  street  to  the  other,  so  that,  owing  to  the 
condition  of  the  buildings  on  either  side, 
attack  could  only  be  made  from  the  street 
proper,  and  here  the  regulars  were  well  pro- 
tected. Early  on  the  morning  of  June  8  the 
mob  appeared,  coming  from  both  directions  in 
fair  order  and  under  good  leadership.  It 
stopped  a  hundred  yards  away,  and  under  a 
flag  of  truce  a  man  walked  forward  to  parley 


The  Fall  of  an  Empire  307 

with  Captain  Harding  of  the  regulars.  He 
was  offered  a  position  as  a  leader  in  the  new 
movement,  and  his  men  were  offered  their 
lives  if  they  would  throw  down  their  arms,  but 
Harding  refused.  Standing  on  top  of  a  pile 
of  rough  stones,  his  head  hatless,  bloody,  and 
bandaged,  leaning  on  his  sword  and  with  his 
revolver  in  his  hand,  his  uniform  torn  and 
mud-bespattered,  he  still  looked  the  gallant 
soldier  and  brave  man  that  he  was,  and  com- 
manded the  respect  of  even  the  mob  which 
stood  ready  to  crush  him.  His  answer  to  the 
spokesman  was  as  follows  :  '  To  your  question 
I  answer  no  ;  your  demands  I  emphatically 
refuse  ;  go,  return  to  the  beasts  you  have  left, 
and  tell  them  that  I  serve  my  country,  not  a 
mob  of  howling  anarchists  ;  tell  them  that  my 
orders  were  to  do  what  I  could  to  save  my 
country  from  ruin,  and  that  in  my  endeavor 
to  do  this  I  will,  if  necessary,  shed  the  last 
drop  of  my  blood.  I  know  your  numbers  and 
your  power,  but  I  am  content  to  die  fighting 
to  preserve  the  American  Empire  from  destruc- 
tion. I  do  not  know  who  you  are  nor  what 
you  are  ;  but  I  say  to  you,  as  the  representative 
of  all  those  elements  which  are  most  vile  and 
dangerous  to  the  safety  of  society,  that  I, 
Thomas  Harding,  Captain  of  Company  H,  i8th 


3o8  The  Great  Awakening 

Regular  Infantry  of  the  American  Empire, 
abhor  all  that  you  and  your  kind  stand  for. 
I  have  nothing  further  to  say,  and  hope  you 
will  now  retire,  that  this  little  affair  may  be 
the  sooner  over.'  Then  the  leader  of  the  mob 
making  a  gesture  of  withdrawal,  Harding  said  : 
'  Sir,  since  next  we  shall  meet  as  leaders  in 
battle,  I  salute  you,'  and  making  the  salute 
with  his  sword,  he  raised  an  American  flag 
above  the  stones  and  disappeared  behind  the 
barricade.  The  charge  followed  quickly,  and 
soon  all  was  over.  Not  a  regular  remained  to 
tell  of  it. 

"  This  was  one  of  the  many  heartrending 
scenes  with  which  that  bloody  era  was  full. 
Harding  was  partly  right.  The  mob  were 
beasts,  because  they  were  the  result  of  the 
barbarous  scheme  of  finance  current  at  that 
time,  yet  great  good  came  from  the  doings  of 
that  same  mob  ;  and  it  must  ever  be  thus.  A 
great  revolution  always  means  a  change  of 
ideas  for  the  better,  and  this  rarely  comes 
without  bloodshed  and  long  periods  of  fighting, 
in  which  man's  passion  and  brutality  rise 
above  all  else.  Some  must  suffer  that  many 
may  gain.  '  Alas,  that  life  must  forever  feed 
its  growth  on  death,  and  human  progress 
advance  only  over  the  ruins  of  the  perfect.' " 


The  Fall  of  an  Empire  309 

As  we  rolled  along  the  avenue  I  found  my- 
self thinking  deeply  of  this  great  revolution. 
I  could  see  the  tremendous  good  it  had  done 
in  spite  of  the  brutality  of  the  doing  ;  I  could 
appreciate  the  feelings  of  the  mob  ;  I  could 
even  understand  Harding's  attitude,  and  I 
could  see  how  the  restriction  of  suffrage  had 
led  up  to  this  state  of  affairs.  But  what  I 
could  not  understand  was  why  these  things 
should  be.  Why,  if  there  is  a  kind  Provi- 
dence above  us,  should  such  useless  bloodshed 
be  allowed } 

"Professor,"  I  said,  "is  there  at  this  time 
sufficient  knowledge  of  the  history  of  man  to 
explain  all  of  these  things  to  me  ?  I  have 
been  taught  to  believe  in  a  God,  one  who  is 
wise  and  just  ;  I  have  been  taught  that  the 
universe  was  created  with  a  definite  design  ; 
can  you  help  me  in  these  matters .''  Can  you 
explain  to  me  the  reason  for  all  this  suffer- 


ing 


?" 


"  Not  so  long  as  you  hold  to  the  idea  of  a 
God.  A  man  holding  this  idea  gets  but  one 
consolation,  which  is,  '  After  all,  how  can  we 
judge  an  infinite  power  without  infinite  wis- 
dom }  The  useless  suffering  seems  terrible  to 
us,  but  may  it  not  be  all  for  the  best .-'  Must 
we  judge  when  our  knowledge  is  so  limited  ? ' 


3IO  The  Great  Awakening 

This  thought  has  given  consolation  to  thou- 
sands." 

"  Yes,  but  does  it  satisfy  you,  professor  ? 
I  must  tell  you  that  there  are  times  when  it 
does  not  satisfy  me." 

"  Now  what  you  want,  evidently,  is  my 
views  on  religion,  and  although  I  never  force 
my  opinions,  I  am  glad  of  an  opportunity  of 
talking  with  you  upon  this  question  since  you 
have  introduced  it.  To  me  this  is  no  conso- 
lation at  all.  In  fact,  I  am  not  in  need  of 
any  consolation.  I  am  not  a  mental  cripple, 
and  do  not  need  a  belief  in  a  future  life  to 
help  me  in  this  one.  But  to  examine  the 
case.  You  will  of  course  see  that  there  is 
no  argument  set  forth  here  ;  the  man  simply 
says  that  suffering  may  be  for  the  best,  and 
considers  that  he  has  reasoned  soundly  in 
suspending  judgment  until  more  knowledge 
is  obtained,  which  is  all  very  well  in  itself, 
but  the  man  never  thinks  that  it  might  be 
wise  to  suspend  judgment  as  to  whether  there 
is  a  God  to  cause  this  suffering.  Believing  in 
a  God,  he  finds  many  conditions  which  perplex 
him,  and,  being  at  sea,  as  it  were,  he  seeks 
consolation  in  the  supposition  of  a  possibility  ; 
that  is  all  it  is ;  but  if  he  did  not  believe  in  a 
God  he  would  not  need  this  consolation." 


The  Fall  of  an  Empire  3 1 1 

"  But,  professor,  what  is  the  use  of  this  life 
if  all  is  to  end  here  ?  Why  should  all  of  these 
things  exist  if  nothing  is  to  come  of  it  in  the 
future  ?  " 

"  Things  are  not  made  for  a  future,  but 
from  a  past.  Do  you  understand  me?  In 
any  cycle  of  phenomena  the  middle  term 
does  not  exist  because  there  must  be  a  last 
term,  but  because  there  was  a  first  term. 
We  know  that  there  may  be  a  last  term  if 
there  is  a  second  term,  but  to  say  that  the 
middle  term  was  created  that  there  might  be 
a  third  term  —  which  is  the  same  as  saying 
that  the  world  was  created  with  a  certain  de- 
sign —  is  to  ignore  the  first  term.  If  God 
created  the  universe,  who  or  what  created 
God  .-*  It  is  similar  to  the  ancient  tradition 
as  to  how  the  world  was  supported.  If  for 
one  moment  you  admit  the  possibility  of 
something  being  created  out  of  nothing,  then 
there  is  no  end  to  the  backward  reasoning 
you  can  follow  logically  ;  if  you  say  that  mat- 
ter—  or  rather  the  luminiferous  ether,  for 
matter  is  only  ether  in  a  condition  of  motion 
—  was  created,  then  one  has  a  good  reason  for 
asking  what  created  that  which  created  mat- 
ter, and  so  on  backwards,  indefinitely.  Upon 
the  hypothesis  of  a  Creator  there  is  no  evi- 


312  The  Great  Awakening 

dence  in  fact  for  stopping  at  this  point  and 
claiming  He  ahvays  existed.  The  evidence 
plainly  says  ether  always  existed. 

"  This  ether  manifests  itself  in  different 
ways,  and  these  conditions  of  ether  may  be 
created  ;  that  is,  a  condition  distinct  in  itself 
may  exist  to-day  and  not  exist  to-morrow,  but 
the  ether  has  always  existed,  so  far  as  there  is 
any  evidence. 

"  As  a  conscious  being,  man  is  constantly 
exercising  what  he  terms  will-power  and  pro- 
ducing certain  definite  results  which  he  calls 
the  results  of  design,  and  from  this  he  gets 
his  idea  of  a  design  in  nature  matured  in  the 
brain  of  a  God.  But  in  this  he  is  wrong  ; 
first,  because  this  apparent  use  of  the  will- 
power is  only  apparent,  and  secondly,  because 
there  is  nothing  in  nature,  outside  of  nervous 
organisms  considered  alone,  that  does  not 
show  the  reverse  of  design,  as  Darwin  proved 
most  conclusively.  We  understand  now  the 
phenomena  of  nervous  organisms,  and  they 
present  to  us  the  same  great  truth  that 
'  Things  are  not  made  for  a  future,  but  from  a 
past,'  whereas  in  your  time  the  ignorance  on 
this  subject  was  vast,  and  therefore  this  dis- 
tinction was  drawn  between  the  two  classes, 
to  wit,  that  nervous  organisms  possessed  ex- 


The  Fall  of  an  Empire  313 

traordinary  characteristics  not  common  to  the 
other  class." 

"  But,  professor,  if  we  are  only  machines, 
what  is  the  use  of  living  ?  " 

"  Well,  between  you  and  me,  if  you  can  see 
no  use  of  living  I  see  no  reason  why  you  need 
live.  The  trouble  with  you  is  that  you  have 
become  so  imbued  with  ancient  beliefs  that 
to  eradicate  them  would  deprive  you  of  half 
of  the  pleasures  of  life.  Now,  it  is  not  so 
with  me.  I  was  not  consulted  about  my  birth, 
but  was  forced  into  this  world  not  because  of 
the  future  necessity  of  the  existence  of  a  man, 
but  because  of  the  past  necessity  for  the 
gratification  of  the  appetites  of  my  parents. 
Very  good !  Here  I  am  placed  as  the  direct 
result  of  past  actions,  and  I  am  given  certain 
appetites,  mental  and  physical,  also  the  direct 
results  of  past  actions.  Now  one  of  these  ap- 
petites is  the  appetite  to  live,  which  I  have  to 
a  very  great  extent ;  indeed,  I  enjoy  the  grati- 
fication of  that  appetite  more  than  any  other, 
and  questions  relating  to  a  future  life  would 
never  make  me  lose  that  appetite.  Now,  with 
you,  anything  which  tends  to  demolish  your 
ancient  beliefs  makes  you  lose  your  appetite 
for  life,  otherwise  you  would  not  ask  me 
*  What  is  the  use  of  living  ? ' 


314  The  Great  Awakening 

"  The  majority  of  people  have  always  suf- 
fered from  mental  dyspepsia,  and  to  tone  up 
the  system  and  preserve  the  appetite  for 
living,  have  taken  doses  of  theology  in  large 
or  small  quantities,  according  to  their  nature. 
As  for  myself,  I  never  had  the  disease. 

"  But  enough  of  this.  Let  me  call  your 
attention  to  this  spot."  Our  motor  wagon 
had  stopped  at  the  corner  of  a  street,  where 
there  was  a  library.  "Here,"  said  the  pro- 
fessor, pointing  to  the  building,  "  stood  an  old 
armory,  in  which  was  stored  about  five  hun- 
dred million  dollars'  worth  of  bonds  and 
stocks  at  the  time  mob  law  was  at  its  height. 
These  papers  had  been  hurriedly  placed  here 
at  the  first  outbreak,  and  were  protected  by 
five  hundred  regular  soldiers.  The  garrison 
held  out  until  the  first  of  June,  and  when  the 
armory  was  taken,  the  bonds  and  stocks 
went  up  in  smoke.  Of  course  you  under- 
stand that  the  burning  of  these  bonds  did  not 
mean  the  destruction  of  the  wealth  repre- 
sented by  them,  but  only  the  destruction  of 
all  records  of  ownership.  There  were  many 
other  strongholds  like  this  which  were  de- 
stroyed earlier  and  easier  ;  indeed,  with  flying 
machines  and  dynamite  bombs,  the  mob  prac- 
tically had  it  their  own  way.     Considering  the 


The  Fall  of  an  Empire  3 1 5 

damage  done  and  the  condition  of  the  mob 
during  the  Chaotic  Era,  it  is  quite  astonishing 
that  a  nation  such  as  you  find  now  arose  from 
the  ruins ;  but  the  causes  of  this  are  to  be 
found  in  the  fact  that  for  years  public  opinion 
had  been  changing  to  certain  definite  ideas, 
that  the  best  philosophers  and  statesmen  of 
the  Money  Republic  had  influenced  public 
feeling  in  the  right  direction,  and  that  before 
many  months  of  mob  law  had  passed,  able 
and  conscientious  men  stepped  forward,  and, 
assuming  control,  steered  the  ship  of  state 
through  the  dangerous  channels  into  the  calm 
and  sheltered  harbor  of  Equality. 

"  After  a  stormy  and  dangerous  voyage  of 
more  than  four  thousand  years  we  lie  at  rest 
in  safety,  and  the  science  of  political  econ- 
omy, like  a  massive  and  impenetrable  wall,  pro- 
tects us  from  the  fury  of  the  sea  of  ignorance." 


CHAPTER   XXI. 

CONTAINS    A    LITTLE    MATTER   TOUCHING 
TRUSTS. 

We  spent  the  forenoon  and  most  of  the 
afternoon  in  viewing  parts  of  the  city  ;  and 
while  the  trip  was  interesting,  I  found  that  I 
missed  something  in  the  atmosphere  of  busi- 
ness—  I  could  hardly  tell  what.  The  absence 
of  the  poorer  districts,  which  we  called 
"slums,"  was  also  very  evident  to  me,  and  I 
have  hardly  got  used  to  it  even  now.  As  I 
viewed  the  different  wholesale  and  retail  stores 
and  saw  how  the  manufacturing  and  distribut- 
ing was  concentrated  even  in  large  districts, 
and  also  how  this  method  facilitated  trade  and 
therefore  aided  production,  it  puzzled  me  to 
know  how  this  fact  could  be  reconciled  with 
the  third  law  of  economy,  which  claimed  that 
monopoly,  or,  in  other  words,  the  concentra- 
tion of  business  interests,  tends  to  diminish 
the  production  of  wealth.  This  puzzled  me 
so  much  that  it  occupied  my  mind  for  the 
rest  of  the  afternoon,  and  at  dinner  that  night 

31(5 


Trusts  317 

I  questioned  the  professor  concerning  it.  As 
we  were  sipping  our  coffee  and  smoking  our 
cigars  in  the  little  cafe  adjoining  the  large 
dining  room  of  the  hotel,  I  explained  to  the 
professor  my  difficulty  in  this  matter,  and  he 
answered,  I  am  glad  to  say,  entirely  to  my 
satisfaction. 

The  concentration  of  interests  facilitates 
trade  because  it  specializes  labor,  but  this 
specialization  of  labor  in  itself  means  a  dim- 
inution of  the  number  of  laborers,  so  that  the 
total  number  of  wealth  producers  is  dimin- 
ished. It  often  happened,  however,  as  in  my 
day,  that  improved  methods  used  by  the  trust 
would  allow  of  more  wealth  being  produced 
by  ten  laborers  than  would  otherwise  be  pro- 
duced by  twenty,  so  that  the  immediate  result 
of  discharging  the  other  ten  was  not  shown 
by  any  diminution  of  weahh  ;  but  in  the  long 
run,  and  if  these  other  ten  had  no  means  of 
getting  work,  it  was  shown,  for  a  continued 
progress  towards  trusts  caused  a  continued 
growth  in  the  number  of  unemployed,  which 
in  its  turn  caused  an  increased  tax  on  the 
working  ten  to  support  the  idle  ten.  This 
also  diminished  the  production  of  wealth  in 
another  way,  since  it  cut  down  the  effective 
demand  for  goods.     No  matter  how  much  the 


3i8  The  Great  Awakening 

actual  demand  for  goods  may  be,  it  is  only 
the  effective  demand  which  acts  on  trade  and 
therefore  stimulates  production  ;  for  since  a 
manufacturer  produces  only  what  he  thinks 
he  can  sell,  the  number  of  buyers  affects  the 
production  of  goods.  But  to  throw  men  out 
of  work  means  a  decrease  in  the  number  of 
buyers,  hence  it  means  a  diminution  in  the 
production  of  wealth.  And  this  is  true  even 
if  there  is  not  actual  idleness,  for  any  diminu- 
tion in  the  ability  to  earn  diminishes  the 
effective  demand,  and  hence  diminishes  pro- 
duction ;  and,  indeed,  it  seems  to  me  clear  on 
the  face  of  it  that  anything  which  tends  to 
diminish  the  number  of  workers  tends  to 
diminish  the  amount  of  wealth  produced, 
since  wealth  is  only  produced  by  work. 

However,  the  trusts  must  not  carry  all 
the  blame.  The  monopoly  of  money  was  still 
more  to  blame,  for  had  our  financial  system 
been  similar  to  the  one  now  in  existence  men 
would  not  have  been  idle.  With  us,  money 
being  restricted  to  gold  and  a  percentage  of 
credit,  industry  was  restricted  ;  therefore  the 
demand  for  labor  was  restricted,  therefore 
men  were  idle.  The  specialization  of  labor  is 
beneficial  to  the  production  of  wealth,  but 
these  benefits  will  not  be  lasting  unless  the 


Trusts  3 1 9 

financial  system  is  so  regulated  as  to  care  for 
those  thrown  out  by  this  specialization,  which 
ours  was  not.  Also,  as  capital  and  land  were 
treated  as  private  property  in  the  nineteenth 
century,  industry  was  often  diverted  into  un- 
productive and  wasteful  channels,  so  that  mo- 
nopolies only  exaggerated  the  waste.  Nothing 
of  this  sort  can  happen  now. 

The  specialization  of  labor  simply  means 
the  putting  of  the  laborer  in  that  position 
wherein  he  can  produce  the  most  wealth  with 
the  least  labor,  and  from  this  point  of  view  it 
is  easy  to  understand  your  system,  wherein 
different  kinds  of  labor  are  performed  by  all 
men  at  different  ages.  In  my  time  this  could 
not  be  carried  out  because  of  the  marked  dif- 
ference in  mental  ability ;  but  now,  with  the 
immense  amount  of  wealth  produced  and  the 
stupendous  educational  opportunities  which 
every  one  has,  these  differences  have  disap- 
peared. And  indeed,  they  had  to  disappear 
under  such  a  scientific  and  just  financial 
system. 

This,  then,  is  the  vindication  of  the  third 
law.  The  monopoly  of  industry  tends  to  divert 
it  into  wasteful  channels,  while  the  monopoly 
of  money  tends  to  keep  idle  all  those  thrown 
out   by  the  monopoly  of  industry.     This  is 


320  The  Great  Awakening 

worth  thinking  over.  In  my  day  the  benefits 
from  the  speciahzation  of  labor  caused  the 
formation  of  trusts,  while  the  evils  coming 
from  the  concentration  of  power  and  the 
increase  of  the  number  of  unemployed  caused 
the  formation  of  anti-trust  legislation.  Many 
men  were  on  each  side,  but  few  saw  that  the 
money  question  was  below  all. 

The  rest  of  the  time  was  spent  in  enjoying 
the  pleasures  of  the  city  ;  the  concerts,  the 
theatres,  the  art  galleries,  and  the  museums. 
It  was  an  enjoyable  week,  and  one  I  shall  not 
forget. 

Early  on  Monday  we  started  for  home  in  a 
large  aerodrome.  We  had  decided  to  do  this 
rather  than  use  our  own  machines,  as  we  could 
make  better  time  and  I  felt  safer  than  if  I  were 
by  myself.  The  drome  that  we  hired  was 
much  like  the  one  that  we  had  taken  for  our 
trip  to  Hudson's  Bay,  the  only  difference  of 
any  importance  being  that,  while  the  latter 
was  driven  by  two  propellers,  this  one  had 
four  long,  narrow  wings  —  two  placed  in  front 
of  the  sustaining"  surface,  one  on  either  side,  and 
two  behind — which  were  flapped  vigorously 
up  and  down  by  an  electric  motor,  the  flexi- 
bility of  the  construction  causing  the  feather- 
ing and  thus  giving  the  push  to  the  machine. 


Trusts  321 

This  drome  was  not  quite  as  steady  as  the 
other,  the  flapping  of  the  wings  giving  a  sHght 
rocking  motion  to  the  car,  but  it  was  better 
suited  to  soaring,  which  feat  we  performed  as 
often  as  the  upward  currents  would  allow  us. 

A  little  way  out  of  Chicago  we  had  a  diver- 
sion in  the  shape  of  a  fire.  We  first  perceived 
it  at  a  height  of  twelve  hundred  feet  when  it 
was  just  starting  in  a  barn  connected  with  a 
large  and  handsome  residence  in  what  I  should 
call  the  suburbs  of  Chicago,  although  your 
city  is  practically  all  suburbs.  As  I  was  much 
interested  in  the  workings  of  the  fire  depart- 
ment, we  dropped  to  a  lower  altitude.  Fast 
though  we  went,  about  twenty-five  patrolmen 
in  flying  machines  got  there  before  us,  and  the 
one  in  whose  district  the  fire  was,  assuming 
control,  all  but  three  or  four  landed  and,  with 
hose  and  ladders,  which  by  this  time  had 
arrived  on  the  scene,  went  to  work.  I  was 
puzzled  to  see  no  engines,  but  the  professor 
explained  that  at  every  hydrant  there  was  an 
electric  pump  below  the  surface  of  the  street, 
in  a  manhole,  which  perfonned  the  service 
much  more  effectively  than  any  steam  fire 
engine  could  do  it ;  and,  with  half  a  dozen  well- 
directed  and  powerful  streams,  the  fire  was 
soon  out. 


322  The  Great  Awakening 

"  I  am  astonished,"  said  the  professor,  "  you 
did  not  have  electric  pumps  in  your  hydrants. 
In  your  thickly  settled  wholesale  districts 
they  would  have  been  more  effective  than 
a  big,  heavy  engine  that  had  to  be  drawn 
sometimes  half  a  mile,  and,  with  so  many 
electric  wires  underground,  it  would  have  been 
easy  to  tap  one  or  more  circuits." 

I  could  only  smile  and  say,  "  What  could 
you  expect  from  nineteenth-century  people  ? 
What  could  you  expect  from  barbarians  .-'  " 

After  this  incident  we  rose  to  three  thou- 
sand feet,  and  striking  favorable  conditions 
over  Lake  Michigan,  soared  all  day.  At 
about  six  o'clock  we  ran  into  a  bank  of  clouds 
which  had  come  up  suddenly  from  the  east, 
and  I  was  glad  to  turn  in  and  dine  with  the 
professor  in  the  tiny  cabin  forward.  When 
we  came  on  deck  again  I  found,  to  my  delight, 
that  the  engineer  had  taken  the  drome  above 
the  clouds,  which  were  very  dense  and  were 
swirling  along  five  hundred  feet  below  us.  As 
it  was  quite  cold  I  put  on  my  warmest  outside 
clothing,  and,  lighting  a  cigar,  settled  myself 
on  the  gunwale  with  my  back  against  the 
cabin.  This  machine  looked  very  like  a  small 
cat  boat.  It  had  a  tiny  cabin  forward  and  a 
cockpit  with  seats  aft,  where  the  steering  gear 


Trusts  323 

was  also  placed ;  and  had  it  not  been  for  the 
great  spread  of  silken  surfaces  overhead  and 
off  on  either  side,  and  the  movement  of  the 
long  narrow  wings,  it  would  have  taken  but 
little  effort  to  imagine  oneself  sailing  on  a 
tranquil  sea. 

Later  in  the  evening  the  full  moon  rose 
through  the  clouds,  lighting  them  with  a  pale, 
clear  light,  and  making  of  the  depths  below 
us  a  vast  sea  of  silent,  but  rolling,  surging, 
and  tossing  billows. 

"  If  one  watches  the  course  of  the  moon," 
said  the  professor,  "  it  is  impossible  to  see  or 
realize  that  it  has  any  effect  upon  our  move- 
ment. It  seems  so  small  to  us,  and  is  ac- 
tually so  small  in  comparison  with  the  other 
bodies  of  our  system,  that  it  would  seem  ab- 
surd that  it  should  move  us  in  any  way. 
Yet  we  know  it  does,  and  from  this  we  learn 
a  lesson.  There  is  no  force  so  small  but  it 
produces  some  effect.  At  the  present  time 
we  understand  these  things  better  than  you 
do,  and  therefore  do  not  draw  erroneous  con- 
clusions." 

" To  what  do  you  refer ?"  I  asked. 

"  Why,  it  was  common  in  your  time  to  deny 
the  existence  of  a  force  if  its  full  effect  was 
not  visible  ;  your  contemporaries  were  not  able 


324  The  Great  Awakening 

to  analyze  conditions.  In  economics,  for  in- 
stance, men  denied  the  truth  of  a  theory  be- 
cause in  practice  results  were  different  from 
what  the  theory  would  lead  one  to  expect. 
One  could  as  sensibly  deny  that  the  mutual 
attraction  of  earth  and  moon  is  such  as  to 
cause  them  to  revolve  about  their  common 
centre  of  gravity  because  in  practice  they  do 
not  do  this.  The  cause  of  the  error  was  that 
in  practice  forces  existed  with  which  the  the- 
ory, from  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  had 
nothing  to  do.  In  a  country  like  yours,  for 
instance,  where  the  doctrine  of  protection 
held  sway  for  sixty  years,  and  where  wealth 
was  constantly  increasing,  a  man  who  claimed 
that  protection  diminished  the  production  of 
wealth  was  considered  a  fool  simply  because 
with  protection  the  country  grew  richer.  The 
moon  pulls  the  earth  this  way  and  that  in  its 
movement  around  its  orbit,  yet  in  spite  of  this 
the  earth  moves  steadily  on  its  path  around 
the  sun ;  and  so  your  country  grew  rich,  not 
because  of,  but  in  spite  of,  protection,  for  the 
forces  which  tend  to  increase  wealth,  such  as 
immense  natural  resources,  a  virgin  soil,  and 
hardy,  intelligent,  and  energetic  laborers,  were 
greater  than  the  force  of  protection.  The 
sun  is  greater  than  the  moon,  and  therefore 


Trusts  325 

the  moon's  effect  is  not  apparent.  Do  you 
understand  the  simile  ?  When  these  forces 
weakened,  that  is,  when  the  soil  became  old, 
and  when  the  laborer  became  less  intelligent, 
then  the  effect  of  protection  became  more 
evident,  until  a  time  came  when  its  ill  effects 
were  apparent  to  every  one,  which  happened 
early  in  the  twentieth  century,  and  then  a 
change  of  policy  was  made.  In  England,  be- 
cause of  peculiar  conditions  of  soil  and  dense 
population,  this  lesson  was  learned  in  1846,  so 
that  the  English  were  nearly  a  century  ahead 
of  every  other  nation  in  this  respect." 

"  It  seems  to  me,  professor,  that  the 
English  were  ahead  in  everything.  Many 
men  of  my  day  considered  their  constitutional 
monarchy  better  than  our  democracy  with  its 
gross  corruption." 

"It  is  true  that  the  Enghsh  people  were 
probably  the  best  governed  people  in  the 
world  in  your  day,  but  that  does  not  mean 
that  a  constitutional  monarchy  is  better  than 
a  democracy.  Here  you  are  again  jumping 
at  conclusions,  just  like  all  the  men  of  your 
time.  The  English  were  the  best  governed 
people  because  they  were  the  least  uncivilized 
and  had  practised  the  art  of  government  the 
longest   time    without    foreign    interruptions, 


326  The  Great  Awakening 

which  was  due  chiefly  to  their  being  a  dense 
population,  all  of  one  blood,  and  living  on  an 
island  away  from  the  influence  of  continental 
powers.  As  to  a  constitutional  monarchy,  do 
you  suppose  your  country,  made  up  as  it  was 
of  foreigners  of  all  kinds  and  classes,  would 
have  existed  a  day  with  a  king,  no  matter  how 
limited  his  power  ?  What  king  could  have 
reigned  over  such  a  mixture  of  foreign  blood 
as  existed  in  the  United  States  in  nineteen 
hundred  ?  Think  of  the  people,  the  size  of 
the  country,  the  difference  in  racial  customs, 
peculiarities  and  modes  of  thought  which  ex- 
isted side  by  side,  and  then  tell  me  what  form 
of  government  could  have  handled  this  stu- 
pendous question  as  well  as  a  democracy,  in 
spite  of  its  shortcomings.  You  may  have  the 
rest  of  your  lifetime  to  answer  this  question, 
for  you  will  need  it.  No  !  Democracy  is  not 
a  failure.  Neither  was  the  democracy  of  the 
United  States  of  America  a  failure.  It 
taught  the  world  one  of  the  greatest  truths 
man  has  ever  understood,  which  is  the  second 
law  of  economy. 

"  This  law  does  not  refer  only  to  the  doc- 
trine of  protection,  which  is  but  a  side  issue, 
as  it  were,  but  has  to  do  with  all  governmental 
interference  shown  in  the  constantly  increas- 


Trusts  327 

ing  laws  and  statutes  aiming  to  regulate  those 
matters  which  would  naturally  regulate  them- 
selves. As  the  great  EngHsh  historian, 
Henry  Thomas  Buckle,  has  well  said,  '  The 
most  valuable  additions  to  legislation  have 
been  enactments  destructive  of  previous  legis- 
lation,' or,  in  other  words,  legislators  have 
helped  the  world  only  by  repealing  the  acts  of 
previous  legislators. 

"  Your  countrymen  thought  the  only  way 
to  benefit   a  country  was  to  increase  its  laws, 
when  the  very  opposite  is  the  truth,  so  that 
anarchy,  in  this    respect,  is  nearer  the  truth 
than    socialism.     The    great    advantage    the 
English  had  over  the  Americans  was  that  the 
constitutional  monarchy  was  for  them  a  stable 
government,  and  change  in  ministry  did  not 
mean  that  the  stability  of  any  policy  would  be 
so  threatened  as  to  interfere  with  trade,  while 
democracy  did  not  do  this  for  the  Americans. 
This  was  not  the  fault  of  democracy,  however, 
but    it    was    because   this  mixed   race  called 
Americans  was  determined  to  change  its  pol- 
icy, regardless   of  trade,    until  it   got  what   it 
wanted.     The  lesson  learned   was  not   what 
was  anticipated  ;  quite  the  contrary  ;  for  while 
people  were  trying  to  benefit  themselves  by 
getting  the  government  to  legislate  for  this  or 


328  The  Great  Awakening 

for  that,  they  finally  awoke  to  the  fact  that 
the  less  the  government  legislated  the  better 
they  would  be ;  in  other  words,  they  discovered 
the  second  law  of  economy,  and  this  great 
truth  never  would  have  been  known  without 
that  era  of  superfluous  and  rank  legislation 
which  existed  in  the  nineteenth  and  twentieth 
centuries  in  your  country.  Especially  is  this 
applicable  to  the  tariff,  which  was  constantly 
being  changed  to  suit  private  parties. 

"  Everything  must  run  its  course- —  a  policy 
must  be  carried  to  its  extreme  before  its  evil 
results  will  be  evident  to  most  men,  and  those 
who  can  see  the  truth  before  the  rest  are 
ahead  of  their  day  and  will  suffer  accordingly, 

"  This,  then,  was  the  mission  of  the  United 
States,  as  the  mission  of  England  had  been  to 
prove  the  first  law,  and  as  the  mission  of  the 
Money  Republic  was  to  prove  the  third  and 
fourth  laws." 

The  professor  stopped  speaking  to  light  a 
fresh  cigar,  and  for  a  while  we  smoked  in 
silence. 

"  I  think,  professor,  that  I  shall  be  exceed- 
ingly contented  in  my  new  life." 

"  You  ought  to  be ;  but  as  for  me,  I  wish  I 
had  been  born  a  hundred  years  later.  Just 
think  how  much  better  things  will  be  then  !  " 


Trusts  329 

"Ah,  yes,  I  suppose  so."  Nevertheless,  I 
could  not  understand  the  professor,  for  to  me 
the  present  scheme  is  an  ideal  one  and  no 
improvement  possible.  But  after  all,  every- 
thing depends  on  the  point  of  view,  and  per- 
sonal ambition  is  the  basis  of  contentment. 
Mutability  is  an  immutable  law  of  nature.  I 
am  positive,  however,  that  in  the  politics  of 
to-day  I  shall  be  a  conservative  and  the  pro- 
fessor a  radical,  because  I  am  contented  and 
he  is  not. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

IN  WHI.CH  THE  RELATION  BETWEEN  THE  IN- 
CREASE OF  POPULATION  AND  INDUSTRY  IS 
TREATED  FROM  THE  MALTHUSIAN  STAND- 
POINT. 

We  travelled  eastward  all  night,  making 
good  time,  and  at  about  ten  o'clock  the  next 
morning  sighted  the  city  of  New  York.  As 
I  had  previously  expressed  to  the  professor  a 
wish  to  examine  modern  shipping,  he  had  ar- 
ranged to  stop  at  New  York  and  continue  the 
journey  to  Boston  by  boat.  We  accordingly 
landed  from  the  drome,  and  put  up  at  a  hotel 
until  arrangements  could  be  made  for  secur- 
ing a  passage  on  one  of  the  lines  of  magnifi- 
cent vessels  which  ply  between  New  York 
and  Boston. 

New  York  is  such  an  entirely  different  city 
from  the  one  I  had  known  that  I  did  not 
recognize  it.  There  are  absolutely  no  high 
buildings,  except,  of  course,  the  towers  for 
aerodromes,  no  narrow  streets,  and  no  con- 
gested  tenement    districts.     The   population 


Population  and  Industry         331 

seemed  to  me  so  small  —  and,  indeed,  this  was 
true  of  other  cities  —  that  I  wondered  what 
had  been  the  actual  increase,  if  any,  and 
whether  we  could  find  here  a  vindication  or  a 
denial  of  the  law  concerning  the  increase  of 
population  as  stated  by  Malthus.  The  pro- 
fessor, to  whom  I  naturally  went  for  informa- 
tion, was  as  ready  with  an  answer  to  this  ques- 
tion as  he  had  been  to  others  I  had  asked 
him. 

"  Is  your  generation,  then,  a  believer  in 
Malthus?"  I  asked. 

"  We  believe  the  law  which  he  laid  down  ; 
that  is,  we  know  that,  unchecked,  population 
will  always  increase  faster  than  the  means  of 
substance.  The  mistake  that  Malthus  made 
was  in  supposing  that  the  check  which  oper- 
ated in  his  time  must  always  operate.  In 
this  he  was  wrong,  but  it  does  not  detract 
from  the  great  value  of  his  work,  which  shows 
more  clearly  than  any  other  the  relation  be- 
tween the  increase  of  population  and  physical 
happiness.  If  it  were  not  for  the  fact  of  the 
tremendous  power  of  the  human  species  to 
multiply,  the  race  could  never  have  survived 
the  struggle  for  existence.  Now,  when  the 
Money  Republic  was  formed,  the  principles 
for  which  it   stood  were  considered  by  the 


332  The  Great  Awakening 

greatest  thinkers  to  be  those  best  suited  to 
bring  about  the  greatest  production  of  wealth  ; 
and  since  one  of  these  principles  was,  as  you 
know,  the  equal  distribution  of  wealth,  they 
thought  that  this  would  also  bring  human 
happiness.  But  in  this  they  were  wrong,  and 
they  realized  it  very  shortly  alter  the  Repub- 
lic was  started. 

"  At  first,  with  a  virgin  soil,  strong  and 
able  workers,  and  a  scientific  system  of  dis- 
tribution, a  tremendous  amount  of  food  prod- 
ucts was  raised,  and  the  population  doubled 
itself  in  ten  years,  mainly  by  births,  but 
partly  by  immigration.  At  this  point  the 
force  of  Malthus'  argument  was  seen,  and  it 
dawned  upon  the  people  that  their  political 
economy  would  not  give  them  physical  happi- 
ness, or,  in  other  words,  prevent  all  physical 
suffering  so  long  as  the  population  increased 
at  such  a  rapid  rate.  A  great  many  people 
of  your  time  could  not  or  would  not  see  this 
fact ;  but  it  is  undeniable  that,  unchecked, 
population  will  always  increase  faster  than 
the  means  of  subsistence.  Seeing  so  great 
an  increase  in  the  wealth  of  different  coun- 
tries during  the  nineteenth  century,  many  of 
your  contemporaries  considered  that  there 
was  practically,    no  limit  to  the  production 


Population  and  Industry         333 

of  wealth  ;  and  therefore  many  ascribed  all 
misery,  not  to  increase  of  population,  but  to 
bad  government,  which,  by  the  way,  was 
more  than  half  the  truth ;  but  what  they 
failed  to  see  was  that  population  depends  on 
the  amount  of  one  form  of  wealth,  and,  re- 
gardless of  any  increase  in  all  other  forms, 
the  quantity  of  this  one  form  alone  deter- 
mines the  increase  of  population.  I  refer,  of 
course,  to  the  food  products. 

"  Manufactured  articles  may  exist  in  abso- 
lutely unlimited  quantities,  but  if  there  is 
only  enough  food  to  support  life  in  one  mil- 
lion persons,  the  population  cannot  possibly 
increase  beyond  this  point,  even  allowing 
equal  distribution,  regardless  of  the  total 
wealth  of  the  country.  You  may  say  that 
these  people  could  exchange  their  manufac- 
tured goods  for  food,  but  the  above  statement 
includes  all  food,  whether  raised  at  home  or 
imported  from  abroad. 

"  Now,  wealth  is  measured  in  dollars  ;  and 
since,  in  your  day,  there  seemed  to  be  no 
limit  to  the  increase  of  wealth  thus  measured, 
in  manufactured  articles,  personal  property, 
real  estate,  railroads,  steamships,  etc.,  it  was 
assumed  that  the  increase  could  have  no 
limit.     But  the  true  way  to  measure  the  wealth 


334  The  Great  Awakening 

of  a  country,  with  a  view  of  finding  out  what 
population  it  will  support,  is  to  measure,  not 
in  dollars,  but  in  barrels,  bushels,  pounds,  etc., 
the  quantity  of  food  products  it  can  raise  or 
import.  The  manufactured  articles  or  any 
other  articles  —  other  than  food  products  and 
the  necessary  raw  material  for  clothing  — 
which  are  used  for  home  consumption,  play 
no  part  in  increasing  the  population,  although 
they  increase  the  wealth ;  it  is  only  those 
articles  which  are  exported  in  exchange  for 
food  that  enter  into  the  calculation. 

"  To  prevent  physical  suffering,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  have,  first,  equal  division  of  wealth, 
and  second,  a  stationary  population.  That  is 
the  secret  of  all  the  happiness  you  see  here, 
and  it  has  been  the  acceptance  of  that  great 
fact  which  has  changed  the  nature  of  the 
science  of  political  economy,  so  that  instead 
of  treating  of  methods  to  produce  justice 
and  happiness  it  treats  of  the  production  of 
wealth  pure  and  simple.  Now  it  must  be 
evident  to  you  that  in  any  given  civilization 
the  production  of  food  will  be  limited  both 
by  the  area  devoted  to  cultivation  and  the 
state  of  the  art  ;  so  while  it  may  be  impos- 
sible to  fix  a  limit  to  the  production  of  other 
forms    of   wealth,    this    does    not    hold    with 


Population  and  Industry         335 

food  products,  which  always  require  certain 
definite  conditions,  as  ground  space,  good  soil, 
light,  air,  and  time  to  produce,  all  of  which 
conditions  limit  the  number  of  harvests  in  a 
year,  and  therefore  the  quantity  which  can  be 
taken  from  any  given  area.  This  was  not 
appreciated  in  your  time,  or  your  economists 
would  have  taught  differently.  There  were 
tyrants  in  your  day,  men  who  increased  the 
misery  by  their  teachings  ;  but  this  has  hap- 
pened in  all  ages,  and  the  landowner  and  cap- 
italist had  to  disappear  finally,  not  because 
they  caused  all  the  misery,  but  because  they 
—  or,  rather,  the  system  by  which  they  were 
supported  —  increased  that  misery  and  inter- 
fered with  the  rapid  production  of  wealth. 

"  With  us,  our  economy  being  as  perfect  as 
possible,  the  increase  of  population  led  imme- 
diately to  the  study  of  the  principles  underly- 
ing this  increase  ;  and  the  science  of  statistics 
having  been  developed  tremendously  since 
Malthus  died,  we  were  able  to  prove  the  point 
he  makes.  Then  the  question  came  which 
check  should  be  used.  Malthus  gives  as 
preventive  checks,  moral  restraint,  by  which 
he  means  a  life  of  celibacy,  vice,  misery,  or  the 
fear  of  misery ;  and  as  positive  checks,  vice, 
misery,    famine,    pestilence,    and    war.      The 


336  The  Great  Awakening 

latter  checks  kill  after  birth,  the  former  pre- 
vent breeding.  It  is  thus  evident  that  all  of 
these  checks  imply  more  or  less  unhappiness, 
moral  restraint  perhaps  the  least  of  all ;  but  it 
was  this  fact  that  led  Malthus  to  the  conclu- 
sion, now  known  to  be  erroneous,  that  there 
must  always  be  unhappiness  caused  by  phy- 
sical suffering. 

"  If  Malthus  had  lived  a  century  later  and 
had  used  the  fuller  statistics  of  that  time,  he 
would  have  found  an  interesting  fact,  which  is, 
that  marriages  amongst  the  more  intelligent 
classes  produced  fewer  children  than  those 
made  in  the  lower  classes,  one  or  two  children 
to  a  family  being  the  average  in  the  upper 
classes  —  which  would,  of  course,  keep  the  po- 
pulation stationary  —  because  of  the  existence 
of  another  check  which  Malthus  evidently  did 
not  see.  This  check  we  call  the  precautionary 
check,  and  the  great  advance  of  the  science  of 
medicine  has  rendered  it  absolutely  effective, 
so  that  the  birth  of  children  is  regulated 
regardless  of  the  gratification  of  passion ;  and 
this  is  now  in  force  amongst  us,  and  is  accepted 
by  all,  since  it  is  well  known  that  of  all 
checks  to  the  increase  of  population  this  one 
causes  the  least  unhappiness.  The  popula- 
tion of  the  world  is  less  to-day  than  at  your 


Population  and  Industry         337 

time,  and  being  wholly  civilized  it  is  practically 
stationary,  and  there  will  be  no  increase,  for 
the  relation  of  population  to  happiness  is 
understood  at  last. 

"  In  using  the  word  happiness,  you  must 
understand  that  I  mean  the  happiness  which 
comes  from  the  gratification  of  the  physical 
appetites  necessary  to  life  ;  the  gratification 
of  the  mental  appetites  is  entirely  independ- 
ent of  this  law,  and  it  is  here  that  our 
unhappiness  lies. 

"  Man  is  apt  to  exaggerate  the  evil  which 
touches  him  to  such  an  extent  that  he  can  see 
no  other,  and  therefore  naturally  believes  that 
he  would  be  perfectly  happy  if  the  one  evil 
were  removed  ;  but  the  moment  this  is  done 
there  appears  another  evil  not  seen  before,  and 
this  must  continue  forever.  One  may  ask 
that  if  people  believed  this  to  be  true,  why 
should  they  attempt  to  remove  the  first  evil ; 
and  the  answer  is,  that  after  the  removal  of 
the  first  evil,  the  second  almost  always  strikes 
another  man  or  another  generation.  Men  are 
optimistic  enough  to  believe  that  they  can 
dodge  future  evils  provided  they  can  remove 
present  ones,  and  this  optimism  has  played  a 
tremendous  part  in  the  progress  of  the  human 
race.     One  thing  more,  and  then   I  will  not 


338  The  Great  Awakening 

bother  you  with  my  economics.  Of  course, 
as  long  as  there  was  war,  or  any  danger  of  war, 
the  necessity  of  having  a  large  population 
was  so  great  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  that  the 
precautionary  check  acted  with  but  little 
power ;  but  after  the  fall  of  Russia  and  the 
annihilation  of  the  Chinese  through  famine 
and  pestilence  due  to  the  war  in  China,  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race  quickly  overspread  the  earth, 
and  war  ceased  forever  at  the  end  of  the 
Chaotic  Era.  Then  the  checks  to  population 
were  but  four  —  precautionary,  moral  restraint, 
vice,  and  misery  ;  and  of  these  the  first,  which 
had  been  growing  in  power  for  two  centuries, 
triumphed  over  the  others,  and  thus  Malthus' 
conclusions  were  proved  wrong.  Physical 
happiness  is  dependent  upon  two  things  —  the 
greatest  possible  production  and  equal  distri- 
bution of  wealth,  and  a  small  stationary  popu- 
lation. That  state  we  have  attained.  The 
population  of  this  country  now  is  thirty-nine 
millions,  and  for  the  last  fifty  years  the  births 
have  equalled  the  deaths.  The  population  of 
the  world  is  only  five  hundred  millions  and  is 
also  stationary,  being  composed  almost  wholly 
of  descendants  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race." 

In   the    afternoon   we   rode    down  to   the 
wharf  and  went  on  board  the  steamer,  which 


Population  and  Industry         339 

really  was  one  of  the  finest  I  had  ever  seen. 
Getting  upon  the  deck,  I  was  much  amazed  to 
see  that  the  frames  of  the  ship  had  been 
raised  above  and  met  overhead,  and  the  pro- 
fessor told  me  that  between  these  frames 
large  sheets  of  a  tough  hard  glass  were  raised 
and  fastened  when  the  boat  was  running  in  a 
heavy  sea,  thus  making  her  practically  air- 
tight, so  that  no  matter  how  high  the  waves 
were,  promenading  on  deck  was  at  all  times 
possible,  and  the  glass  overhead  and  on  each 
side  allowed  a  perfect  view  under  all  conditions. 
The  height  of  this  canopy  of  glass  above  the 
deck  was,  I  should  judge,  twenty-five  feet,  so 
that  all  deck  houses  were  under  this  shelter ; 
and  with  the  glass  in  place,  the  boat  had  the 
appearance  of  an  enormous  glass  whaleback, 
and  never  suffered  the  slightest  danger  from 
storms.  It  was  a  twin-screw  vessel  driven  by 
electricity  generated  by  a  small  gas  thermopile, 
and  went  thirty  knots  an  hour,  easily.  The 
staterooms  were  large,  roomy,  and  well  lighted, 
and  the  accommodation  in  every  way  equal 
to  hotel  service.  We  left  New  York  at  sun- 
set and  were  soon  in  the  Sound  ;  but  as  the 
scenery  here  was  very  familiar  to  me  I  did 
not  stay  long  on  deck,  but  soon  retired  to  my 
stateroom.  The  next  morning  we  were  up 
early,  and  at  seven  o'clock  we  got  into  Boston. 


CHAPTER   XXIII. 

IN    WHICH    THE    NARRATIVE    CLOSES. 

Thus  ended  my  journey  through  your 
beautiful  country  —  a  journey  which  to  me 
was  full  of  interest  and  which  taught  me, 
more  than  any  other  experience  I  had  ever 
undergone,  the  changes  which  have  taken 
place  in  the  last  three  centuries.  When  I 
look  back  upon  my  own  time  my  former  life 
seems  but  a  distressing  dream,  and  I  see  how 
uncivilized,  how  brutish,  we  were  in  the  nine- 
teenth century. 

There  is  little  more  to  be  said.  The  pro- 
fessor returned  to  his  work,  and  by  his  aid 
and  the  aid  of  some  of  his  friends  my  case 
was  put  before  the  public,  and  it  resulted,  as 
you  all  know,  in  my  being  appointed  a  teacher 
of  medieval  history  in  Howard  College. 

I  wish  to  express  to  you  all  my  deepest 
thanks  for  the  consideration  with  which  I 
have  been  treated,  and  I  assure  you  it  has 
been  appreciated.  As  for  myself  and  my 
work,  I  feel  that  the  teaching  of  the  history 


Conclusion  341 

of  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries  is 
all  that  I  am  capable  of  doing,  and  I  feel 
keenly  at  times  the  difference  between  myself 
and  those  born  in  this  enlightened  age.  I 
realize  fully  now  the  monstrous  evils  which 
existed  in  my  day,  but  it  is  impossible  that 
my  nineteenth-century  methods  of  thought 
should  change  quickly;  that  will  take  time, 
and  I  therefore  ask  forbearance,  especially 
from  my  students,  who,  though  they  are 
taught  by  me,  must,  I  am  afraid,  look  upon 
me  more  or  less  as  a  barbarian.  It  is  my 
fondest  hope  that  the  process  of  time  will 
eradicate  much  of  this,  and  that  a  future  will 
come  when  I  can  say,  "  I  am  a  citizen  of 
the  twenty-second  century,  I  am  a  civilized 
man."  When  that  comes  I  shall  be  extremely 
happy,  because  it  is  the  limit  of  my  ambition, 
and  I  shall  die  knowing  that  I  have  lived  with 
two  generations  separated  from  each  other  by 
over  two  hundred  years. 

Yes,  I  have  lived ;  what  other  man  has 
lived  as  I  have  ?  And  life  !  What  a  strange 
affair  it  is  !  What  a  different  thing  it  means 
to  each  one  of  us !  Life  at  best  is  but  a 
short  existence,  and  in  my  ignorant  times  to 
the  majority  it  was  an  existence  of  misery. 
Ah,    truly   ignorance   is   the   bane   of   man- 


342  The  Great  Awakening 

kind,  the  supporter  of  tyrants,  the  worker  of 
evils ;  but  Knowledge,  thou  art  the  light, 
guiding  mankind  forward  to  happiness  and 
plenty.  It  is  ever  to  thee  that  man  must 
turn  for  guidance  ;  it  is  ever  to  thee  he  must 
look  for  help  ;  to  thee  he  owes  everything  that 
is  good  in  his  life.  Ever  growing  brighter 
and  brighter,  thy  light  has  for  centuries  been 
dissipating  the  mists  of  ignorance  which  have 
befogged  the  poor  weak  brain  of  man. 

The  progress  of  man  is  measured  by  the 
increase  of  knowledge.  Literature,  music,  the 
fine  arts,  and  religion  are  but  the  superficial 
embellishments  of  the  age  in  which  they  exist, 
and  are  moulded  by  it,  but  in  themselves 
are  passive,  and  exert  no  influence  on  prog- 
ress. To  what,  then,  do  we  owe  the  pres- 
ent great  civilization  .-*  I  answer.  To  science. 
Not  to  great  novelists,  poets,  composers, 
painters,  or  priests,  but  to  those  who,  in  ob- 
scurity, and  perhaps  ridiculed  by  their  con- 
temporaries, have  spent  their  life  unravelling 
the  complex  phenomena  of  nature,  and 
thereby  given  to  man  that  greatest  of  all 
things  —  science.  Let  a  people  have  litera- 
ture, music,  art,  and  religion  as  much  as 
you  will ;  without  science  their  condition  will 
never  change. 


Conclusion  343 

What  is  that  which  has  weakened  super- 
stition, which  has  moulded  religion  into  re- 
spectability, which  has  overthrown  forever 
the  power  of  kings,  which  has  broken  down 
race  hatred,  which  has  destroyed  the  worst 
diseases  that  afflicted  the  human  race  ?  Is  it 
literature  ?  A  novel,  perhaps,  or  a  poem  ? 
Is  it  music  ?  A  symphony,  you  think  ?  Is  it 
art  ?  A  painting  or,  it  may  be,  a  statue  ?  Is 
it  religion  ?  A  creed  or  the  life  of  a  priest  ? 
Tell  me,  is  it  any  of  these  ?  Is  the  suit  a 
man  wears  the  cause  of  his  actions  ?  What 
are  all  these  but  the  suit  worn  by  the  age, 
the  outside  garments  which  show  the  his- 
torian the  character  of  the  times  ?  That  is 
all  they  are,  and  that  is  all  they  ever  can  be. 
To  know  a  man  you  must  do  more  than  ex- 
amine his  clothes  ;  you  must  converse  with 
him  and  find  your  way  to  his  brain.  The 
historian  must  do  the  same,  and  the  brain  of 
the  age  is  the  science  of  the  age. 

Progress  depends  upon  two  things  :  first 
the  accumulation,  and  then  the  diffusion,  of 
knowledge  ;  and  these  should  go  hand  in  hand 
to  attain  the  best  results.  Scepticism  leads 
to  investigation,  and  investigation  leads  to  the 
accumulation  of  knowledge.  To  believe  is  to 
remain  stationary,   to  doubt  is  to  progress. 


344  The  Great  Awakening 

Let  every  man,  then,  investigate  for  himself, 
adopt  systems,  not  because  they  are  old.  but 
because  they  are  good,  not  because  they  ex- 
ist, but  because  they  should  exist.  Let  every 
man  think  for  himself  and  express  his 
thoughts  freely.  This  is  the  philosophy  of 
the  twenty-second  century,  and  its  goal  is 
happiness  and  plenty. 


Conclusion  345 


"  For  the  great  enemy  of  knowledge  is  not  error,  but 
inertness.  All  that  we  want  is  discussion,  and  then  we 
are  sure  to  do  well,  no  matter  what  our  blunders  may 
be.  One  error  conflicts  with  another,  each  destroys 
its  opponent,  and  truth  is  evolved.  This  is  the  course 
of  the  human  mind  ;  and  it  is  from  this  point  of  view 
that  the  authors  of  new  ideas,  the  proposers  of  new 
contrivances,  and  the  originators  of  new  heresies,  are 
benefactors  of  their  species.  Whether  they  are  right 
or  wrong  is  the  least  part  of  the  question.  They  tend 
to  excite  the  mind ;  they  open  up  the  faculties  ;  they 
stimulate  us  to  fresh  inquiry ;  they  place  old  subjects 
under  new  aspects  ;  they  disturb  the  public  sloth  ;  and 
they  interrupt  rudely,  but  with  most  salutary  effect,  that 
love  of  routine  which,  by  inducing  men  to  go  grovelling 
on  in  the  ways  of  their  ancestors,  stands  in  the  path  of 
every  improvement,  as  a  constant,  an  outlying,  and,  too 
often,  a  fatal  obstacle." 

Henry  Thomas  Buckle. 


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